Origins of Humanity
by Aussie
Summary: AU SG from mid Season 2. What would happen if SG1 gated to Caprica, three years before the Cylon Attack on the Colonies. What would happen if the SGC had access to the Colonies' industrial might early on in their fight against the Goa'uld!
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Notes (Explains the Premise for the story)**

Okay. Here goes, another story I've made to clear the writers block for _War Cries_. This is another original idea that I've got, that I haven't seen done anywhere else. It's a crossover between SG1 and BSG the new Series. I have changed each of the Universes a lot. In SG1, it's near the beginning of the Stargate Program and early in the series. It's early enough for the Goa'uld not to think of Earth as a major pest. In BSG, the 2nd Cylon war hasn't happened yet and we're years away from it happening.

The premise of the show is this: What if Earth had encountered the Colonial civilization while it was at it's peak? How would ppl of Earth react, and how would the Colonials react? And what was the Colonial civilization like before the fall of the 12 Colonies?

I have made some assumptions which will change a few things in the 'stargate' side of the story. #1 – in my universe, the galaxy is a very big place and the Goa'uld dominate only a fraction of it. Instead of ruling hundreds of planets, they only rule dozens, ie 60 or so, and it's a big ask to travel to the other side of the galaxy, where the Colonials are located. Assumption #2 is that it's pretty barren in the galaxy, and habitable worlds are few and far between. Goa'uld and Jaffa worlds may have been terraformed long ago and that's why they're habitable: that's the explanation.

This story will be updated as i have ideas and is not my main project. and by the way, _ANYONE can steal the main idea for this story, ie, Earth encountering the Colonials before the 2nd Cylon war. I am only writing this story because i want to read that happening, i don't really want to write it. _If you do use this idea, just credit me and tell me it's going on so i can read it!

I was going to post Chapter 2, with the Colonial side of the story tonight, but personal life issues called me away from writing and it's now 2am. So, I'll post this chapter and wait to see if I get any feedback and should post chapter 2 tomorrow. Cheers and leave plenty of reviews.

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**Origins of Humanity**

**Chapter 1**

They watched as the video feed materialised from the MALP as it exited the wormhole on the other side of the Stargate. As soon as they had dialled the Stargate, they had known that something was different about this address. Just prior to the Stargate establishing a stable wormhole, there was a power surge equivalent to that of opening a wormhole. Stargate Command had dialled the address a number of times, experiencing the same effect each time. Slowly, as the MALP's camera automatically adjusted to the light in the room, they began to make out features. The room looked ancient, with many writings on the walls, and a strange looking pedestal standing in front of the Stargate where the DHD usually stood.

"There's no DHD sir," Samantha Carter, SG1's resident military trained astrophysicist commented from the video feed.

"Do you feel confident that you can dial back into Earth?" General Hammond asked. It was then that Daniel Jackson chimed in.

"Sir, I believe the risk justifies going. If this is the homeworld of these, Lobokians, according to the texts I read, we could be going to the world of a potentially advanced civilization," Daniel responded. Daniel had been reading through the legend of a sect of people, with similar practices to that of the Ancient Druids of the United Kingdom, in mainland Europe. There had been many different accounts by different civilizations which had pointed towards these Druids having amazing abilities and having their homeworld on a far-away land but residing in ancient Europe. Daniel had stretched the evidence, but he believed that these people may have been related to the Atlantis legend. The texts had successfully been translated by other academics over the years, realising that it was an offshoot language of Latin. The thing that led Daniel to the texts was a series of seven symbols which had not been able to be translated which related to the homeworld of the Lobokians. Upon looking at the text, Daniel immediately recognised a number of the symbols to be Stargate coordinates. "Who knows what we could find?" Daniel stated. Daniel could tell that Hammond was seriously thinking about not letting them go.

"Very well SG1, we'll dial in every two hours to keep in radio contact. If you need anything sent through, we'll send it to you as soon as it's available," Hammond commented.

One hour later and SG1 was standing at the base of the ramp leading up to the Stargate, watching it as it dialled the planet. As the seventh chevron engaged, there was an audible surge of power through the Stargate as the lights in the whole complex dimmed and then immediately came back to life. SG1 looked at each other in trepidation, and then proceeded up the gate.

As they emerged from the Stargate on the opposite side, each member of SG1 was on alert, scanning their surroundings. Each of them realised that the room they were in was probably abandoned as nothing had touched the MALP. Light was being provided from several small lights in the tall ceiling of the room, barely providing enough light to see. The room they were in was rather small, with no discernable exit. There were several markings on the walls, and the pedestal standing in front of the Stargate, but nothing else apart from the lights. Daniel walked up to the pedestal and began a closer inspection, only to find that there were two buttons on the pedestal. He was shocked to see that the symbol for Earth's point of origin was on the first button, while an unrecognisable symbol was on the other.

"Look at this," Daniel commented, everyone hearing him. Everyone came over to the pedestal and looked at it. "This is Earth's point of origin symbol," he said while pointing to the first button. "I don't recognise the other one," Daniel commented.

"It may be another symbol on this planet's Stargate," Teal'c said. Daniel looked up at the Stargate, and was shocked by what he saw. There were absolutely no symbols or chevrons on the Stargate.

"No symbols," Samantha stated just before Daniel was going to say it. Daniel hadn't noticed that Jack had wondered off to the other side of the room. Daniel pushed the button and was surprise to see the Stargate form an instant wormhole without a dialling procedure.

"This is SG1," Daniel said into his radio.

"SG1, this is Hammond. You've dialled in early, are there any problems?" They all heard back over the radio.

"No sir. There's just a speed dial DHD at this location and we were just testing it out," Jack replied to him from the other side of the room in his radio before Daniel could reply. They said their goodbyes to Hammond and disengaged the Stargate.

"Looks like there's a way out of here," Jack said while looking at the wall. Daniel had wondered why Jack was so far away from the Stargate and left Samantha and Teal'c to inspect the Stargate while he walked over to the wall where Jack was standing. Upon closer inspection, Daniel could see that there was a very thin vertical crack within the surface of the wall, which looked like a seal of some kind. He began to look around the seal, and after about ten minutes, he found a very faint engraving on the wall near the door. It was the same symbol which appeared on the second button of the pedestal in the room. He reached out to brush some of the dust away, but as he touched it, he heard a rumbling sound. It had appeared that he had opened the door by touching the symbol. A stairwell was revealed, travelling upwards in a straight line without a visible end.

Almost ten minutes later, and SG1 was faced with a similar doorway to before. IT took a while to find the symbol, but once they did, the doors opened as expected to the outside world. They stepped out into a temperate landscape, with tall pine trees dominating their view ahead while a small grassy clearing was right before them. The doors were set in a small outcrop of rock which was approximately four metres high by ten wide from what they could briefly tell. The air was crisp and cool, similar to conditions in Colorado Springs where they had all come from. Daniel heard the doors closing behind them, and when he turned around he was shocked to see that the outside of the doors resembled the rock face that they were cut into. Once the doors had closed, it was almost impossible to distinguish them from the surrounding rock face.

After making sure that they could reopen the doors, SG1 set out to explore the surrounding landscape. Half an hour later, they regrouped in the grass clearing.

"There looks to be nothing of any value within the vicinity of the Stargate," Teal'c commented.

"We didn't find any traces of a path or ruins or anything to suggest that any intelligent life is nearby," Daniel commented.

"We'll report home. Hammond will probably set up a survey team to come back to the planet to look around further," O'Neill commented. They just started to head over to the rock outcrop which housed the stairway to the Stargate when Teal'c paused.

"Wait," he said while making the symbol to be quiet. Daniel looked to Teal'c who appeared to be listening very hard to something they could not hear. "There is a distinct rumbling in the distance which was not present before," Teal'c stated. All of SG1 stopped and listened. About ten seconds later, Daniel could hear the same sound that Teal'c described.

"That's an aircraft," Jack said after about another five seconds. "Everybody get down." Just as they did so, Daniel saw two shapes dart above the clearing in the sky, obviously the aircraft that they had heard before. Daniel realised that they were travelling faster than the speed of sound, since it sounded like they were still some distance away.

"They're circling around," Carter commented. Daniel looked up and he could barely see the craft in the distance. They were too far off to make out any details, however he could see that they were turning. He could hear another sound approaching, and upon noticing frantic hand gestures from Jack, Daniel ducked his head again and raised his weapon. Within moments, another craft flew overhead, however at a much slower speed. Two more passed overhead after it. After a few moments, they appeared back over the clearing and hovered there. Daniel could tell by the sound, they sounded much like the engine of an airliner, but much quieter. He knew they had been made as the craft had hovered over the grass field in which they were lying. It would be easy to see them from above as the engines of the craft buffeted the grass around. He saw movement from the side of his eye and saw Jack standing up, weapon in hand, followed by Teal'c and Sam. Daniel followed suit. As he got up, he looked up at the craft which was hovering above them. He immediately looked away as the engine glare from it's vertical thruster shone in his eyes. He slowly looked back to see that the craft had a series of weapons on it, and they were pointed at SG1. A voice emanated from a loudspeaker on the ship, but he couldn't recognise anything of what they were saying. He looked over to see Jack looking at Daniel expectantly, however Daniel shook his head saying that he couldn't understand them. He looked back at the craft and shook his head.

"Put the weapons down. It might be a start," he yelled to Jack, Sam and Teal'c over the noise. They complied and looked back up at the craft. Daniel did so too. He could see that the craft had a relatively flat bottom, save for the engine mounting on it's bottom. The craft appeared to be a bit larger than a helicopter, but apart from those two features, he couldn't tell much about it as it was keeping the bottom of it's hull parallel to them. It was then that Daniel heard other voices yelling to them, but they weren't from the craft. He looked down to see that they men in black combat gear with guns pointing towards them had surrounded them with their weapons raised.


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors Notes: **I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that here's the next chapter, and for those who read it, _War Cries_ will also soon be updated with a massive chapter. The bad news is that we've lost the internet at home, so updates will be sporadic and may consist of multiple chapters at a time.

I'm not a big fan of the language barrier which I've put in place for the Colonials and Earth, so I'm going to fast track it as much as possible. Next chapter should deal with the events which have happened from the Colonial's viewpoint, however it should be noted that I've had difficulties at coming at it from that viewpoint (as this chapter was originally meant to be from their viewpoint). I'll give it my best tho

Thanks for the reviews and enjoy the following chapter

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Origins of Humanity

Chapter 2

It was a certainty, that whatever mess they had ended up in, it was a big one. Jack O'Neill knew that as soon as he saw the two aircraft fly over them when they were just outside the chamber which housed the Stargate. He didn't fully understand how much trouble they had been in until he got a view out of the front windshield of the craft that they'd been pushed into. He got to see just a glimpse of the city which they were being taken to, and he doubly was amazed and cringed at what he saw. Streams of aircraft coming and going from various parts of the city, some being much larger than the craft they were in now. From what he could tell, the buildings in the city centre were immaculate, from the glimpse of the sizes and shapes of them all. For all their technological advancements that Jack could see, the people guarding him still looked the same. Just from the way the guardsmen had acted, he could tell that they were edgy and anxious about something. Even with all their obnoxious pointing and prodding.

After they were captured outside the Stargate, Jack, Daniel, Samantha and Teal'c had been split up between three of the transport craft, restrained. Jack assumed that they'd all been flown to the same place, here. It was on the journey that Jack got a glimpse at the outside world that these people lived in. Jack had been brought to this facility and the first thing that had happened to him was that he was shoved in front of someone holding some kind of strange meter. The meter was swept over him by the individual, who appeared to be a doctor to Jack. His first thoughts had been that the meter was a handheld metal detector, however he was doubting his original conclusions seeing as a doctor wouldn't be in charge of detecting weapons on him. He was then escorted to this room, and basically thrown in. He knew a jail cell when he saw one, and this certainly was one. The door was in the corner of the room, with a large glass panel embedded within the same wall that the door went through. He had tried to smash the glass many times, but he didn't even make a scratch. Jack was guessing that the glass was bullet proof too. The other walls were blank and featureless, giving him nothing to look at or to keep his mind occupied. There was a bed and a toilet, as there were in Earth's jail cells as well. He did notice that this jail cell was a lot larger than what he'd expected.

As time drifted on, it became apparent to Jack that the cells were designed to make it difficult to discern the passage of time. The grey walls and bright neon lights didn't allow for the characteristics shown by time to reach into the complex and into Jack's cell. Jack had no idea how long he'd been in the room, whether it had been just a few hours, or half a day or more now. The time had only been broken up by the appearance of a small package which came in on a tray beneath the door, seeing as there was ample room for it. Jack had looked at the package, and then laughed as he saw what was inside it: A syringe filled with a greenish substance with a note written in a language he couldn't understand. They weren't going to get him to inject himself with an unknown substance without a lot of persuasion. Ever since then, Jack had just sat with his back against the wall staring at the tray and the package on it; it being the only thing to look at really and he couldn't tell if it had been just an hour, or many hours since he had last walked over to it to look.

Daniel had been brought out of his cell only after what seemed to be a small amount of time. Shortly after he had been given the tray with the syringe and instructions within a small package, the marines, for a lack of a better word, came and took him out of his cell into another similar room. This one had a table in the middle with three seats on one side and one on the other. A long non reflective and non transparent piece of glass or plastic was embedded in the left wall, appearing to be grey and almost blending in with the surrounding wall. Immediately, Daniel knew what this room was: an interrogation room. Daniel had noticed on the way from his cell to the interrogation room that the whole facility was not made entirely out of dull grey featureless walls with neon lighting above, but that it seemed to be a trait within the rooms where prisoners would be held. Daniel walked forward after being released by the guards and took a seat in the single chair. Shortly after, the door on the other side of the room opened and two people, a male and female walked into the room. They both wore a dark navy blue uniform, and they both appeared to be officers. They were both carrying a white folder. The pair said something to Daniel, but he didn't understand what they said to him. He thought he recognised a few words, but they were said so fast that he couldn't analyse them. Before he really knew what was happening, the female officer pulled out a photo of a man and placed it before Daniel. She pointed to the man and looked at him expectantly. Daniel didn't recognise the man, and he didn't understand why they thought he would, so he just shook his head. He did notice, however that the corners of the photo were cropped. They showed him some more photos, of different people this time. Daniel, of course, shook his head at each one of them. Over the time that the officers had been questioning him about the men in the photos, Daniel had been building up an very low quality understanding of their language. Many phrases sounded very similar to early Latin, however they weren't quite the same, meaning he couldn't place anything of what they were saying unless they spoke slower.

They had moved onto a series of photos that appeared to be different people dying of varying diseases. They had showed him pictures of people's hair falling out, of people on the ground vomiting, and of their sin literally blistering and peeling off. As they were showing him the graphic pictures, Daniel knew that there was something in common with all of those symptoms. It was a shock when they finished showing him the pictures, and then pointed to him, and then back to the pile of pictures. He understood what they meant as it sank in; he had whatever disease they had been showing him the symptoms of in the photos; or, they wanted him to think that he had the disease that he'd been shown. He looked at them sceptically and then slowly pointed to the photos and then to himself. The two officers nodded, agreeing with Daniel's assessment that he had the disease. It was then that he understood what the photos showed. They showed the symptoms of someone who had been exposed to excess amounts of radiation.

"Radiation sickness," Daniel said to them. He could see that the pair of officers had a startled look on their faces. Daniel pointed to the stack of photos and repeated the phrase again. Daniel could see that the officers realised that Daniel knew what was shown in the photos. They then produced a package and opened it up, showing a syringe inside it, exactly the same as the one which he had been given within his cell. Daniel was confused now. He couldn't be sure whether the officers were trying to tell him whether he had radiation sickness, or that they were going to force it on him by injecting him with the substance in the syringe. Daniel guessed that the officers saw what was going on in his mind, and they pointed to the pictures, and then pointed to the syringe and shook their heads as they pointed to the syringe. It was at that moment that Daniel found the straw he was grasping for, the one thing that could help breach the language barrier. The male officer in front of him had said the exact Latin word for 'medicine'.

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	3. Chapter 3

**Authors Notes: **No I haven't forgotten about this story. Here's the next chapter. Reviews much appreciated.

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Origins of Humanity

Chapter 3

In the weeks since the injections, this was the first time that Daniel had been able to see any of his team mates, let alone all of them in the same room. They had led him out of his cell to the central interrogation room again, but this time Jack, Sam and Teal'c were all there, apparently just waiting for him.

"Daniel," Samantha exclaimed at seeing him being brought into the interrogation room. The guards stopped at the door and Daniel walked over to his friends. As he did so, the guards shut the door and left them alone.

"Daniel, buddy, it's good to finally see you," Jack exclaimed.

"We had been unsure of your location Daniel Jackson, after being gone for many days," Teal'c said.

"What, you mean you have been in here for days?" Daniel asked.

"No, we're just brought in here every so often to meet with each other, except you," Samantha replied. "We've been given almost no information since you came to speak to us all about the injections we needed to take," Samantha explained.

"That's strange," Daniel replied. "They've been spending a lot of time with me. I've began to learn their language and communicate with them," Daniel replied.

'What have you learned?" Jack asked. Daniel flustered a bit, as he wasn't sure whether what they'd told him was the truth or not.

"Well, they appear to be one civilization fractured into twelve different countries, or colonies as they call them. I don't know which one we're in now. They have no knowledge at all of the Stargate, they don't even know it exists. The area that the Stargate was in had been hit by multiple nuclear weapons in a war they call "The Cylon War", as there used to be a base there, and there's still a lot of lingering radiation. That's what the injections were for, they were anti-radiation injections which stop the effects of radiation," Daniel started.

"Really? Think of how useful that would be back on Earth," Samantha said.

"Yes, I know," Daniel replied. He was about to say something when Jack interrupted,

"Go on Daniel," he said. "What about their level of technology? Any way of getting out of here?"

"Well, it's pretty obvious from the ships that picked us up, as well as the possession of anti-radiation medicine that they're fairly well advanced. They might be fifty to a hundred years in front of us technologically speaking," Daniel said. "As for getting us out of here, I believe I'm making some kind of headway," Daniel stated, getting an inquisitive look from the rest of the team. He took a deep breath before he continued. "It appears that they've got a link to Earth," he stated.

"What? How?" Carter inquired.

"Well, they're made up of 12 Colonies right," Daniel stated, getting nods from a few and a blank stare from Jack. "Well, according to their religious texts, there were once 13 Colonies, one of them which was lost. That lost one is known as Earth," Daniel stated. "Their religion states that they started on one planet, and then there was a problem there, so their gods brought the 12 Colonies here, while the 13th went another direction with their god," Daniel stated. "So to them, Earth is a myth."

"Did you tell them that we're from Earth?" Jack asked.

"Yes I did," Daniel replied. There was a long pause.

"And…?" Jack queried.

"They don't believe me," Daniel replied. Jack threw up his hands and turned around in frustration. "But I think I'm getting to them," Daniel added. "One of their satellites detected an energy distortion when the Stargate opened, that's why they came to investigate," Daniel explained. "They've since recorded twenty such energy distortions, which is obviously Stargate Command dialling in to try and reach us," Daniel said. "We picked a bad time to come. They recently suffered a major terrorist attack from another Colony, and they thought we were working with the terrorist's leader, someone called Zarek," Daniel explained. "I think they're starting to believe that we're not terrorists though… they're sending a team to investigate the location where we were found," Daniel said.

They looked at the detainees through the observation window in the interrogation room, listening through hidden microphones situated within the walls of the room. Two people, one woman and one man, looked through the glass, contemplating the implications of what was going on in front of them. The translation program which they had compiled from the information gleaned from Daniel Jackson, was working at its fullest to interpret what the detainees were saying to one another, and at the moment, the stories of each of the detainees which had been held in isolation, away from Daniel, were matching up with what Daniel had said, and with what the others said too. It was too much of a coincidence.

"We're still not getting answers about the taller dark one, and the pouch and symbol on his head," the woman said to the older man.

"I don't think that we're the ones which need to. All the information we've discovered has been forwarded to Picon and Aquerion intelligence services. Picon HQ is requesting that they be transferred there immediately," the man replied.

**One day later**

They had all been rounded up into the intelligence room again, but this time their marine guard stayed with them, keeping their weapons trained on them. The entire team had only been in the room a few minutes before they were put into restraints and ordered to walk. Jack tried to take in all of his surroundings as they were marched through a maze of dull grey corridors, lit by neon lighting. It wasn't too long before they were brought to the outside world at the location in which they'd arrived at: their airport. Five craft, identical to the craft which had transported them to the military base were sitting on pads which seemed to be especially designed for them, much like helicopter pads. It was then that Jack noticed something which took him utterly by surprise; a group of four people, similarly bound and dressed as them. When they got closer, Jack could see that they were SG4, and that they had their own marine contingent guarding them.

They were ordered to stand before the craft while someone who looked fairly important came out to stand in front of them. He spoke to them, and beside him, a computer translated it into English, amazingly, in his voice. It wasn't perfect English, but it was understandable.

"You are being transferred to Picon Intelligence Headquarters where you will be questioned. You will not be harmed in any way," was basically all that the important person had to say. They were marched into the craft, each team and a couple of marine guards, making it very cramped and uncomfortable.

"Daniel, what's Picon," Jack said from his cramped position sitting on the floor of the craft.

"I think its another country," Daniel replied. Jack heard a loud banging noise from his side and saw that the marine had banged his weapon against the ship and was looking at them sternly, warning them to be quiet. Jack rested his head against the hull of the ship as the engines warmed up and they lifted off the ground. It wasn't until a few minutes into their journey that Jack noticed that something was off; they were still ascending and the ship was starting to shake. He looked to Daniel, and by the panicked look in his eyes, he could tell that they were both thinking the same thing; what the hell was going on. Jack looked to the marines guarding them, and from their expression he could tell that they weren't worried in the slightest. The sky out the front of the cockpit was becoming darker and darker. Jack watched as the sky gradually turned from blue to the blackness of space. For the briefest of moments, he could feel himself start to float before he was pulled back down onto the floor.

"What the hell," Jack exclaimed.

"It must be artificial gravity," Carter said to him quietly, earning a stern look from the marines. Jack could see out the front of the cockpit and was amazed as they pulled down and the curved horizon of the planet could be seen. He was also amazed as he could see dozens of moving stars, which were revealed to be ships of varying designs and sizes, moving away from the planet.

"I thought you said that they were about a hundred years in front of us Danny," Jack said.

"I guess I was wrong," he heard Daniel reply as he was looking out the front of the cockpit too. What startled Jack the most was the sight they saw after they had gone around what was obviously a shipping lane, in space. From what Jack could tell, it was a massive ship, and obviously a warship. He couldn't tell exactly how big it was, as it was very difficult to judge the distance it was away in space, but he could tell that it was massive from just looking at it and the size of the ships buzzing around it. The whole experience was startling him and taking him out of his mind at the same time. These people were the most advanced people they'd met, apart from the Goa'uld, since the activation of the Stargate. It was then that he was snapped back into reality as the co-pilot gave one of the marines orders. Jack watched as the marine spoke to Daniel.

"Yes, I can do that," Daniel replied. "He wants me to translate for him," Daniel explained to them. The marine started speaking again, and Daniel took it all in, getting some startled looks on his face. When the marine had stopped speaking, Daniel turned to them to explain.

"From what I understood, Picon is in another star system and we have to undergo some kind of travel to get there which is disorientating," Daniel said. "They were just giving us warning," Daniel said. "I'm now thinking that these 'Colonies' of theirs may be separate planets instead of countries," Daniel added. Jack took the information in, and then something hit home.

"You said that they had 12 Colonies didn't you Daniel?" Jack asked.

"Yes," Daniel replied.

"So that means the possibility of twelve different planets?" Jack asked. The ramifications of that were seen to hit home with each Daniel and Carter, Teal'c remaining stoic. Jack could recognised the distinct pattern, no matter any language, of a count down by the pilots. Then, out of no where, there was a bright flash of light and Jack's stomach felt like it was almost coming out of his mouth. He waited a few moments for the sensation to settle, and got the shock of his life when he looked out the front cockpit: He could see numerous ships like the large one they'd seen before, hundreds of smaller ships, and one huge space station which out competed them all in terms of size, all in front of a planet which was distinctly not the one they had been in previously, dominated by it's blue sun.

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	4. Chapter 4

**Authors Notes**: New chapter finally. Sorry I haven't updated. It's been really hard to find time recently. Plus, i've had this chapter for a week but FFnet has been stopping me from uploading for some reason. You'll really like this chapter! Reviews let me work faster too, don't forget.

Origins of Humanity

Chapter 4

He looked at the man sitting across the desk from him, leaning back in his chair comfortably looking at him. It was making him nervous, being constantly started at, but his mind guessed that this was what this, Jack O'Neill wanted. Aerisis looked down to his file and scanned some details about Jack. It was presumed that he was the leader of the team which had been transported here to the Picon intelligence division. So far, the eight individuals captured had each independently given the same story with an alarming degree of consensus between even minor details of their story, albeit hard to believe.

"So, let's get this started then… Your name is Jack O'Neill?" Aerisis queried the man in front of him in Colonial Standard, allowing the translation package and the portable computer to translate it for him.

"Yeah that's right," Jack replied.

"And you're with an organisation called the Stargate Program," Aerisis asked.

"Yeah," Jack replied.

"… which explores other planets via means of a ring which can transport matter light years in moments," Aerisis replied. Aerisis just saw Jack nod his head with his arms crossed in front of him. "You should know that this session is not like the ones you experienced on Caprica. We have made the basic assumption that we believe your story. I am just here to find out some more details," Aerisis explained to Jack. He just saw Jack nod again in the same position as he was before, indicating that he was going to be resilient.

"I'll answer any questions as best I can," Jack added after he nodded, sounding slightly sarcastic to Aerisis.

"Can you tell me how this Stargate works O'Neill?" Aerisis asked.

"It would be better if you would ask Carter, she knows all that kind of detail," Jack replied. Aerisis wrote down that Samantha Carter had technical knowledge of this Stargate they kept going on about, which aligned with all of the information they had previously. Aerisis already knew the extent of knowledge that Samantha Carter was willing to part with as to the workings of the Stargate. They had already interviewed all other members of the two teams which they had in captivity.

"Tell me the basics," Aerisis asked.

"We dial up the Stargate, walk through it, and step out the other side on another planet," Jack replied, appearing to be uncooperative. Aerisis considered his options for a while, and he had been saving this question until he interviewed Jack, whom he had surmised from the other interviews, was in charge of their teams.

"Would you be able to show us?" Aerisis asked. He smiled inside, at the shocked look that Jack was giving him, although Aerisis didn't let it on that he was happy at Jack's reaction. It took Jack just a moment to compose himself again before he replied in a stoic manner.

"I would if I wasn't being held prisoner," Jack replied.

"That can be arranged," Aerisis replied. Again, he was smiling inside at Jack's reaction. He knew that it appeared that he was playing right into Jack's hands without him knowing.

"Well then lets do it," Jack replied. Aerisis knew that Jack was testing to see how far that he would be able to go with this line of action.

"You will have transport back to Caprica tomorrow," Aerisis replied, with full knowledge that the time delay for the transport was only so that they could consider their options.

"How long away is that?" Jack queried. "Since I've never seen a whole day go by on this planet."

"A day on Picon is equivalent to 1.46 Caprican days," Aerisis replied. "It's roughly half-way through the day here now… so tomorrow you'll have your transport. You can pick another member of your team to go with you if you wish, to operate the Stargate," Aerisis said. "The rest of your team remains here however, for insurance purposes."

"That's fine. I'll take Daniel," Jack replied. Aerisis was partly shocked by that revelation, considering that it was Samantha Carter with the most working knowledge of the Stargate, and Aerisis voiced this opinion to Jack.

"Samantha Carter has the most knowledge about how the Stargate operates. Shouldn't she be going in case you run into any technical difficulties?" he queried.

"I'm taking Daniel. My reasons are my own," Jack replied.

"Very well then, your transport back to Caprica will be arranged for tomorrow," Aerisis said. He watched as Jack was pleasantly surprised, but Aerisis was playing his cards right. He had something else he wanted from Jack. "… as soon as you tell me about this man, Teal'c," Aerisis said while holding up a picture of Teal'c. He waited until the translation program translated what he had just said and gauged Jack's reaction. He was not happy.

"Come on, I'm sick of playing your games," Jack exclaimed.

"Just tell me about this man, and you can show us this Stargate you keep going on about. If it's real, we may even let you go. After you tell us about this man," Aerisis said sternly.

"He's human, just like the rest of us," Jack replied.

"He's not quite human as us," Aerisis replied. "His blood is significantly different from ours, and yours, enough so that he may even be a different species of human being, something never recorded before in Colonial History," Aerisis explained. He saw no reaction from Jack whatsoever, which indicated that he was aware of everything that Aerisis had just communicated. "We also found another creature within his stomach, and a surgical wound which appears to function as a pouch. Internal scans have revealed that the creature is tied into Teal'c's immune system, and any such attempt to remove the creature will result in his death," Aerisis explained. He saw that Jack remained stoic. It was then that he decided to drop the bombshell and continue. "From that information, we were able to surmise that the creature is a parasite which has infected Teal'c, and that you do not have the means to remove it, as you have obviously made the attempt from the pouch created on his stomach," Aerisis explained. He could see that Jack was nodding in understanding, his demaneour having slightly changed from last time Aerisis observed him. "Similar creatures were found on Canceron when the Lords of Kobol and humans arrived at the Twelve Colonies, and a method was quickly devised to remove the creatures from their hosts. While this creature is different, we believe that we have the means to remove it from Teal'c," Aerisis said. He was finally happy to see the look of pure shock on Jack's face at that announcement. "Providing that you cooperate."

"You'll have our full cooperation," Jack replied.

"The transport will be here for you and Daniel Jackson tomorrow," Aerisis said. He leaned back in his chair and smiled, knowing that they had fallen for the bait. Just before the Cylons were developed, the Tauron Government had experimented with mind control and hyptonism in order to create more robust marines for the Tauron – Aquareon War. They had developed the ability to implant memories into subjects and to make the subject forget other memories. This research had been abandoned after the Cylons were created, being a more powerful fighting machine than a human could ever be. It was his, and the Colonial Government's opinion, that Zarek had gotten his hands on this information and had used it to brainwash his operatives, and tomorrow, the captives would lead the Government representatives right to Zarek's base camp, and half an hour later, it would be flattened.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Notes: Long time no update. Sorry for that. I have a new direction I am going to take this one. For now, I'm possessed by the idea and have to get it down. Hope to have frequent updates for about a week.

**Chapter 5**

**Colonial Intelligence Division – Picon Headquarters**

A mere four hours after Aerisis had concluded his 'discussions' with Jack O'Neill and his team and headed home for the day, he was pulled back to work for an 'urgent briefing'. He was presuming that it was about the raid on the location supplied to them by Jack's Team, or SG1 as they liked to call themselves. Despite what they had told Jack, the Colonial Intelligence Division had immediately began preparations for a raid of the location that had been supplied by SG1, to dismantle the terrorist cell that they had come from.

As Aerisis pulled into the subterranean car-park of the Colonial Intelligence Division (CID), he felt very very tired. He had been working overtime almost constantly for the last two months to track down this sleeper cell of Zarek's. He was praying that the raid had turned up at least something useful.

Aerisis stepped off of the elevator and went through security. There were a few lights on in some of the offices to indicate that some people were working late, but it wasn't any more than the usual. As he went towards his office, he got a glimpse of the conference room. It was fairly crowded, with a few of the higher-ups in it. The Regional Director was getting up and moving towards the head of the room when he spotted Aerisis and waved him in. Quickly, Aerisis did as he was told. He went to duck into the conference room, but was stopped at the door by a short man holding some paperwork.

"You'll need to sign these before you enter," he said, handing Aerisis a series of forms with signature locaitons marked. After he looked at the forms quickly, he recognised the standard CID non-disclosure agreement. He quickly signed and ducked into the conference room and sitting down along one of the peripheral seats.

"If I could have your attention please. It's late and we've got some important business to discuss so I'll get right to it," The Regional Director, Joshua Blake, announced. The Director was in his fifties, with a receding hairline and wire framed glasses that he wore around constantly. Aerisis and the Director were actually pretty close: closer than you would expect a Regional Director and a Field Agent to be. During his academy days, Aerisis had befriended the Director's son for a few years before he was killed in a pirate raid on a Scorpion mining installation. "Last Monday we detected a transmission and energy burst from Caprica, approximately fifty kilometres outside of Delphi. The signature of the energy burst was vaguely similar to what would be emitted from an experimental prototype weapon that was stolen from the Colonial Scientific Institution R&D Labs on Aerilon two years ago. The prototype was never recovered and is believed to be in the hands of any one of a number of terrorist parties. The burst originated from inside irradiated zone 32," the Director explained as an aerial photograph came up on wall behind him, highlighting the area where the signal and energy burst were detected. Irradiated zone 32 was a number of locations across the Colonies that were struck by nuclear weapons during the Cylon war and still had too much radiation to be safe to be in for long periods of time.

"Shielded Raptors were sent to scout the area. They found and apprehended four individuals who were held on Caprica for six days before being transported here. Three of these individuals had no understanding of Colonial Common, or any of the dominant languages from any of the Twelve Colonies. The fourth member had a very fundamental understanding of ancient Tauron and Caprican, but only enough to put together a few words." As the Director spoke, profile pictures of each of the members of SG1 appeared on the screen behind him. "Also, another of the captured individuals was housing a creature very similar to a _shalkayre_, extinct from the Colonies since Colonisation.

"We believed them to have been subjugated to a number of mind numbing drugs or a number of mind control techniques, even possibly mind-hacking with illegal holo-band technology. It was almost as if someone had programmed them to be present a completely fictional story and not give up any information," the Director continued. He gestured to Aerisis before resuming, "Once we had a translation matrix assembled, Agent Aerisis Franks interviewed each of the captured individuals over the course of today. Their story was that they were from the mythical planet Earth and that they came here through a device known as a Stargate, that could instantly transport them here from Earth. We were convinced that this 'Stargate' was symbolism for the prototype weapon, or one of the main bases of their terrorist cell, and that if we obtained the location for this 'Stargate' we could find out what had happened to these people, and maybe also recover our device or break the back of their cell."

"Four hours ago, we despatched a raiding party to the location we had discerned from our captives. The location is a cavern within irradiated zone 32 which we believe housed a much larger sub-terranean base safe from the radiation. What I'm about to show you is gun-camera and helmet-camera footage from the raiding party," The Director said, moving aside as the lights dimmed and video footage began to play on the screen behind him. Aerisis knew all of the details, having been the principal project officer on the job. He was very keen to see what was found in the cavern though, it must have been something big to be called in this late. During the Director's presentation, Aerisis had noted that there were a few generals from the military and navy in the room, as well as a few department heads of CID.

The footage showed the entrance of the marines into the sub-terranean cavern. It was very dark, and the camera footage was showing everything in night-vision. However, as they moved deeper into the tunnel, an artificial light source automatically switched on ahead of the marines. Immediately the marines ducked to the ground with their weapons raised, but it was immediately discernable that the light was only coming from a point-source ahead. Aerisis watched as the marine whom the camera was fitted to, obviously the squad commander, motioned for everyone to keep moving ahead. The tunnel they were in opened up into a cavern, just as SG1 had described. In the middle of the cavern was a small device which was the source of the light. It looked a bit like an un-manned rover, with an extendable multi-purpose arm on the top of it and multiple devices all over its sides. From what Aerisis could tell, the device was also on tracks.

He watched as a marine moved up to the device and started scanning it for explosives. He gave the thumbs up, indicating that it was benign.

"The cavern is clear of hostiles sir. But we found something in the eastern end," a voice said into the squad leader's earpiece, which was relayed through the video feed. The cavern was not that large and the squad leader only had to turn and take a few dozen steps until he was at the eastern end of the cavern. The lack of visibility made it hard to see what they were looking at, even with the night vision. It wasn't until a few torch-beams from multiple marines shone towards the eastern end of the cavern that the device revealed itself. It was a large circular device, embedded into a raised walkway. It was just as SG1 had described it to Aerisis. He watched as the squad commander moved towards a pedestal that was at the base of a series of stairs leading up to the ring. Once he got closer, everyone in the room could see that there were two unfamiliar symbols on the pedestal. Almost hesitantly, the squad commander reached out and lightly touched one of the symbols, not even enough to depress it, causing a chain reaction throughout the room.

Immediately a grinding sound could be heard from the ring. It sounded a bit like stone on stone. The helmet-camera footage panned towards the device and now all the torches of the marines were pointed at it. It could be seen that an inner ring was rotating. Quickly it stopped, and an insignia on the outer ring of the device moved and glowed orange before the inner ring began to move again.

"Everyone stand clear of the ring," the squad commander bellowed throughout the cavern. In the helmet-camera footage, a number of the marines that were close to the device began to quickly back away from it. Aerisis and the rest of the room watched as the process was repeated another six times before the night-vision camera was blinded and the screen showed white. Aerisis as well as a number of others in the room audibly inhaled, thinking that an explosion had occurred. But the night-vision camera began to re-adjust, showing a rippling wall of water occupying the inner ring of the device.

It was then that the Director switched off the screen and the lights came back on. Aerisis, as well as a number of other people in the room were visibly stunned.

"Now, as remarkable as the footage may be, the ring in that video is not our lost device," the Director stated. "I can officially tell you that it is now the Colonial Government's belief that the story our captives told us was true until proven otherwise. It would account for their lack of understanding of Colonial Common, as well as the _shalkayre_ within one of the captives," continued the Director, pausing at the end to let that train of thought sink into all those present. "The Colonial Intelligence Division will act as coordinator for all branches of the Colonial Government until the status of this device and its relation to our captives is resolved… Now I expect that you are all as unfamiliar as I am with the First Contact Protocols for your respective organisations and departments, but I would recommend that you all become familiar with them. I have orders from the higher ups that we are to be ready to enact our First Contact Protocols if the true nature of the device is as our captives explain it, and if our captives are who they say they are." To say that Aerisis was stunned at that moment was an understatement. He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he has to start taking SG1's story seriously

The Director said a few more words about what was going to happen. Generally the Colonial Government was to ready itself to officially make contact with Earth, via SG1, should the Stargate be proven to be an actual link to Earth. Apparently it was now Aerisis' job to use SG1 to ascertain whether this was true or not. After the meeting adjourned, the director and Aerisis' direct supervisor, Nicola Rios, briefed Aerisis directly on what he was to do and the resources that he would have at his disposal. As he'd assumed, just about anything that he needed, he would have in order to accomplish his mission.


	6. Chapter 6

Origins of Humanity

Chapter 6

**Picon - Colonial Intelligence Division – Landing Pad**

Jack had noticed a drastic change in the hospitality shown to them by these 'Colonials'. One minute they were in bleak, grey 'holding cells' getting no one listening to them whatsoever. Then, out of no where they'd been rushed out of there and placed on a spaceship. The interior resembled the first-class section of a 747 more than any kind of spaceship that Jack could think of. They were given the opportunity to shower and change their clothes before lift-off.

What's more important though was that all of SG1 were present, not just him and Daniel as Aerisis had commented in their session before. It made Jack a little wary of what was going on. But he could swear that it hadn't been more than a few hours after his little 'chat' with Aerisis. Something had happened to rush whatever timetable these people had.

Just as the ship was about to take off, Aerisis himself walked into the cabin and stood to address SG1. He put a small device down beside him and clipped a microphone to his collar.

"Sorry about our past hospitality. I hope that this is much more comfortable for you," he said to them all, his voice emanating from the device in almost perfect English. Jack just smiled semi-sarcastically in response. "We've found your Stargate," he continued "and are taking you back there now." Now it all made sense to Jack, although he was half expecting the Stargate was the reason in their sudden change in hospitality.

"Are you going to let us go back through the Stargate?" Jack asked him.

"Yes. But we would ask you that you return so that you may help us learn to use the Stargate, and to learn of our brothers from Earth," Aerisis replied. Jack glanced at Daniel upon the mention of the word 'brothers'. "I can now officially speak on behalf of the Colonial Government when I say that we are sorry for detaining you for so long and hope that you do not hold that against us. I'm sure that you would have done the same, given the circumstances." No one replied to that statement. Jack knew that they would have likely done something similar if their roles were reversed. He didn't know how the SGC would take that though, SG1 hadn't reported in for at least a week and a half. This had been the longest time that SG1 had been 'off the radar' from the SGC since operations began a year and a half ago.

"How about we just contact our command through the Stargate and take it from there," Jack replied. Another person came down from the front of the craft and nodded to Aerisis.

"It's time to take off. Once we get underway, you may want to make use of the headphones provided. It gets very loud exiting the atmosphere in these orbit haulers," Aerisis said. "Once we enter orbit, we will be docking with Picon Fleet Shipyards to transfer to another vessel that will take us to Caprica via a flyby of the Gas Giant Ragnar. Once on Caprica, we will go back to the Stargate," Aerisis said.

"We will need our equipment if we are to use the Stargate. There are a number of security protocols on the other side that will not let us through if we do not follow the correct procedures on our side," Daniel said, referring to the transmitter that would allow the SGC to know that SG1 was coming through, deactivating the iris covering Earth's gate. Aerisis took a seat in front of SG1 and fastened himself in. SG1 did likewise, following Aerisis' lead.

Twenty minutes later and they had left the atmosphere of Picon. Jack had taken Aerisis' advice regarding the headphones, if he hadn't used them during the ascent he'd likely be deaf. It was incredible looking out the windows that were provided as they ascended. He'd gotten a proper look at the city that they had been in. Its size could have compared to New York or Los Angeles, and from what he could tell from his brief glimpse as they ascended, their architecture was amazing. What he also noticed was the sheer volume of aerial traffic. There were ships, planes and all kinds of aircraft, all shapes and sizes, flying in what appeared to be random directions throughout the whole city. Now Jack was treated to another sight. The large space station that they had caught a glimpse of during their 'travel' to Picon was in view, and they were steadily approaching it.

The size of what looked to be their battleships. They essentially pulled up alongside one as they came into dock. It looked as if ten of the ship that they were in could fit in one of the lateral docking structures that extended from each side of the ship. By those estimates, Jack guessed that they were about the size of a Goa'uld Ha'tak vessel. Jack saw Teal'c also looking at the warship. From what Jack could tell, there may have also been some kind of curiosity on his face.

"Impressive, if those are their warships," Jack whispered to him.

"Indeed," he replied. A few minutes later and they had docked with the station.

"If you'll follow me," Aerisis stated to SG1 as he led them out through the dock on the ship. Once they exited the ship, four marines in full kit silently fell in around Aerisis and SG1, escorting them along their route. As they exited the dock of the station, more marines, some in dress uniforms and others dressed like Aerisis, took up flank around SG1 and Aerisis. Most of them were handing things to Aerisis. Jack was guessing that it would be analyses of them, and the Stargate since they'd found it. He also noticed that there was no one in any of the corridors they walked through or passed. Obviously this section of the station had been evacuated.

"Feels like the royal treatment a bit doesn't it," Jack said to Carter.

"They might feel guilty about keeping us locked up for so long," Carter replied. Jack noticed that he'd distracted Carter from looking around at everything she could. He guessed that she was probably salivating and dreaming of a chance of taking the space station's workings apart.

Shortly they walked onto another ship, the interior much like the one they had just come from. Many of the people that had joined their entourage since departing the first ship had gotten onto this ship and walked into differing sections. Aerisis guided SG1 and a few others into what looked to be a conference room in the middle of the ship. Everyone took a seat around the table before Aerisis introduced everyone. Much like SG1, there was a scientist and a cultural expert present, however the Colonials had also brought a priest along. Jack noticed that they were all wearing the same gear as Aerisis, which translated what he said into English.

"I was hoping that on the way to Ragnar, we could have a bit of a talk, to exchange information about our respective cultures," Aerisis said. "Everyone here has been briefed with what we know about the Stargate, and your homeland so we can talk openly," Aerisis added as an afterthought. There were nods all round from SG1, which seemed to catapult Aerisis into action. "I don't know how much you know about the Twelve Colonies, so I'll start from the very basics. The Twelve Colonies are twelve habited planets, Caprica, Tauron, Picon, Gemenon, Virgon, Leonis, Saggitaron, Scorpion, Libron, Canceron, Aerilon, and Aquarion, separated across four different star systems which are very close together in the cosmic order of things. We also have a number of outposts and smaller colonies, however the bulk of our population, 56 billion people, resides on or in orbit around the main colonies. Until recently, the Colonies were not united and inter-colony fighting was common. We were recently united by a war lasting twelve years that required mankind to unite or face extinction. Although the war ended in an armistice, we have not heard from our enemy in over thirty seven years," Aerisis said.

Jack took it all in. Like Earth, the Colonials kept a relatively high population density per planet when compared to other planets in the galaxy. That obviously meant development, but also a whole myriad of other technologies came associated with that. Most occupied planets in the galaxy consisted of agrarian societies of less than a billion people on each planet. Even the more technologically developed societies SG1 had met, including the Goa'uld, did not sustain the same population density that Earth, and now these Colonials, did. It also meant that these Colonials had a massive resource base to draw from, as evidenced by the massive space stations and battleships that floated around everywhere.

"Despite this, we remain in a state of military preparedness in case our enemies should return," Aerisis continued. "Although there are recent political movements to start to reduce our fleet."

"If you don't mind me asking. How big is your fleet," Carter asked. Jack had been wondering that himself. Securing an alliance with a race that could field even twenty of those battleships would drastically increase the level of security Earth had against the Goa'uld.

"I cant give you exact numbers, for security reasons, but we have more than 100 battlestars and more than 500 battle-ready support ships," he replied. That figure blew O'Neill out of the water. He would definitely be recommending to the SGC that they try to pursue an alliance after that was revealed. "There are many aspects from the war that still affect Colonial Society. We voluntarily went backwards technologically during the war. Our enemy had a comprehensive knowledge of computer networks and could easily hack the computer networks of our ships and vent the atmosphere to space, or even begin firing on other ships. To combat this, we removed all networked computers from our society across the Colonies and all associated technology," Aerisis explained.

"That's an absolutely massive undertaking," Carter commented.

"We were desperate to level the playing field. Billions had died by that stage," he replied. The casualties of the war were to a scale that none of the human members of SG1 could imagine. Jack thought that Teal'c on the other hand could come close to comprehending those numbers, having served as the First Prime to Apophis.

"Are all your planets unified?" Daniel asked them out of the blue. Jack could tell that it was something that had been troubling his mind for a while.

"Not entirely. Leonis and Canceron are made up of several separate nation states. However they can only present one representative to the Quorum from each planet. They have periodic elections between the nation states every few years to elect the proper representative. All of our other Colonies are united," the cultural expert replied to Daniel.

"What about cultural diversity. Do each of the Colonies keep a separate cultural identity, or is there a common culture throughout all of the Colonies," Daniel continued to query. Jack knew that Daniel was heading somewhere with this line of questioning, but he didn't know where.

"We are far more diverse than that. There are several, if not dozens, of different cultural practices and religious beliefs on each colony. They are allowed to keep their own practices as long as they are lawful and consistent with the articles of Colonisation. Our unity was primarily brought about by mutual defence and still ties us all together. The Colonial Military was the first organisation created by the united Colonies of Kobol and remains the fundamental glue that ties us all together. There are other organisations and groups that also add to this, but the Military the primary driving force. There is still prejudice between Colonies and even between cultures intra-colony. But we have learned to accept the practices and prejudices of others," the cultural advisor replied. Jack could see Daniel nodding his head.

"Again, that is a great achievement. Earth is made up of over two-hundred nation states who can rarely gain a consensus on many issues," Daniel replied. Jack saw the Colonials just nod in recognition. Daniel and Carter then proceeded to tell the assembled team a bit more general facts about Earth. Jack knew that they were leaving out critical details about Earth's military capability and lack of any space ships aside shuttles. If things went pear-shaped with these Colonials, they could easily dominate Earth from orbit.

SG1 also learned a bit more about the Colonial culture and civilisation. They seemed to be very accepting of all sexualities and cultures. It wasn't until Carter picked up on one of their religious references that things got a bit heated. For all of their acceptance of a broad range of ways to live your life, religion was their sticking point. From the conversations between primarily Daniel and the Colonials, they found out that according to their religion, all humanity originated on the planet Kobol. The Twelve Lords of Kobol created humanity, which fractured into thirteen different tribes. A great war occurred on Kobol between humanity who used the gifts of the gods against each other. The thirteenth tribe was cast out and headed towards a planet they called Earth, while the remaining twelve tribes were expelled from Kobol by their gods with a warning to never return. Some of the Gods went with humanity and helped them to settle the Colonial star cluster, called the Cyrannus system.

That story didn't go over too well with SG1, seeing as this all happened approximately 2000 years ago. The Colonials did not like it when Daniel aluded to the fact that Earth could trace its heritage back at least 200,000 years and had evolutionary ancestors still on the planet. Furthermore, there were no references to any Lords of Kobol on Earth, although there were heavy references to some of the Gods known as the Lords of Kobol.

Eventually the ship passed by Ragnar, a blue gas-giant close to Picon. The Colonials mentioned that they wanted to show SG1 Ragnar as it was one of the 'prettiest' gas giants they had ever come across, and it was also one of the main jump points out of the Picon system. This was a welcome distraction from the philosophical discussions that Daniel and the Colonials had gotten into. They agreed to disagree and left the topic stand as it did, acknowledging that both sides had two very different stories that did not match up at all. When they mentioned that there was one minute until they jumped, Jack almost wished that Daniel could start up the philosophical argument again – it was a far lesser pain than experiencing an FTL jump.


	7. Chapter 7

Origins of Humanity

Chapter 7

**Caprica – Stargate Chamber inside Irradiated Zone 32**

This was it, the moment of truth. SG1, Aerisis, a dozen marines and a dozen scientists all stood in the chamber housing the Stargate. Daniel Jackson depressed the device to dial the Stargate to Earth. Aerisis watched as the symbols locked in and almost hit the floor when the event horizon established and exploded outwards towards them. It was a startling sight to see for the first time. The explosion was sucked back into the Stargate, establishing the event horizon.

"This is Jack O'Neill of SG1 to Stargate Command. Do you read me," Jack O'Neill said into his radio that had been given back to him once they reached Caprica.

"SG1. What's happened to you. We haven't had any contact with you for ten days," a strange voice replied through the radio.

"We've made contact with the locals. Carter and Jackson will be returning through the Stargate with some guests, while myself and remain here," Jack replied. He then activated the device that apparently allowed the SGC to unlock their iris on the other side of the gate. Aerisis felt Jack's gaze fall upon him. "It's our turn to make you sick now," Jack said to him, delayed through the translation matrix.

"The first few trips through the gate can be disorienting," Carter added as she walked past him towards the event horizon. Aerisis followed closely by, pausing next to Carter right in front of the event horizon. He extended his finger into the event horizon and moved it around, watching ripples move out through the wave-like wall in front of him. "Step through when you're ready," Carter said before stepping into the event horizon. Aerisis turned his head to glance behind him, looking to see if the other Colonials who were coming through were behind him, ready to go.

"Here goes nothing. Gods protect me," Aerisis muttered to himself. It was more out of habit than anything else as Aerisis was not overly religious. Closing his eyes, he took a step forward into the Stargate.

Moments later, it felt as if he was in a car crash as he emerged from the other side, stumbling and tripping over his own feet. Before he really knew what was happening, he felt strong arms picking him up off the ground and putting him on his feet. Looking around, he could see that he was surrounded by concrete walls and standing on a ramp, the Stargate behind him. There was a large observation window in front of him, overlooking the large open room that he was standing in. He noticed a number of people, what appeared to be marines, standing at the periphery of the room holding rifles pointed towards the ground.

"Come, come, this way," Carter said to him as she descended the ramp. As he moved along the ramp, he head a thud beside him as another Colonial, Lieutenant Halsbry, stumbled as she exited the wormhole. As Aerisis descended the ramp, he looked around the room again. He was having a hard time believing that this was real. He was actually standing on Earth, a planet that a day ago had just been a myth. Once he was down the bottom of the ramp, he turned to watch the last member of the party come through, Dr Daniel Jackson.

"We're through alright. Confirm that we are okay," Aerisis said into a hand-held radio he had brought with him through the gate.

"Copy that," he heard in response from his people on the other side of the gate. Moments later, the gate violently disengaged and steam hissed from the sides of the gate.

His confirmation that they had successfully made it through the Stargate would trigger a chain reaction of events throughout the Twelve Colonies. Within hours, all relevant divisions of the Colonial Government and Colonial Military would be initiating First Contact Protocols

He and the other Colonials were escorted through the complex to a conference room, where they were told that they had to wait until Samantha Carter and Daniel Jackson were debriefed. Upon walking through the hallways of the base, he could swear that he was still on the Colonies, except for the fact that everyone spoke a different language that he'd never heard before. Most of the artefacts and clothing looked the same as it did back on the Colonies. Military personnel dressed similarly, there were desks, computers and computer screens, suit cases, and a whole myriad of other things that were similar to what they had back on the Colonies. It was puzzling how two separate cultures separated by thousands of years could develop along such a similar tangent.

**Earth – Stargate Command - George Hammond's Office**

Hammond had just received a debriefing from Carter and Jackson, who explained the events of the last ten days to him quite hurriedly. It had put him at rest inside, to know that SG1 was safe and that they hadn't been put through any torture or other aggressive interrogation techniques. It was going to be a big relief to tell the President that the SGC's flagship team was not only safe, but had met a non-aggressive advanced society.

"In summary sir, I think it would be highly beneficial if we could return to the Twelve Colonies in an official capacity, with more people, to learn more about them and potentially gain some new technology," Carter suggested.

"I'll take that into consideration. I will have to inform the President of what you have just told me. It is in my opinion that we have a lot to gain here. I also view it that we potentially have a lot to lose if we do not gain the trust of these people," Hammond responded. This was the first technologically advanced society that they had met since opening the Stargate that did not want to destroy them, and seemed like that they would be open to trading technology.

"Sir, what is interesting though. It is only a theory at the moment. But their Stargate doesn't have a standard DHD. It looks like their gate has only been configured to dial here and one other address. If what the Colonials have told me is right, the other address will not activate," Carter explained.

"Ah yes, I've got something on that. While you were gone, we performed rigorous gate diagnostics. The power surge that occurred when we first dialled this address happens every time we dial it. We discovered that an initial connection with the other gate is established, but that is not the location that the wormhole connects to," Hammond said. "Almost like the address was being forwarded," he continued. He could almost see Daniel's brain ticking over, like he had just thought of something.

"Could it be that the other address on the Colonial's DHD is the same address that we've been forwarded from?" Daniel said. Hammond didn't know where he had gotten that one from, but he was interested. "It would fit with their mythology, as they explained it to us. I would suggest that the address we initially attempted to dial, and the address that is locked out of the Colonial DHD, might be the world called Kobol," he explained. Hammond still didn't understand what he was talking about, but could see some kind of recognition dawn across Carter's face. "The short version of the Colonial Religion tells of a world called Kobol, where their Gods created mankind. After a bloody war, twelve groups of humanity left Kobol for the Twelve Colonies, while another group left for a planet they knew as Earth. That was approximately two-thousand years ago. The Colonial's Gods warned the Colonials against returning to Kobol, saying that a price would be paid in blood," Daniel started.

"It makes sense in that context. If the Colonial's Gods had the ability to 're-program' the Stargate, they could essentially prevent any gates from dealing into the Kobol address," Carter added. "They essentially forwarded their address onto the Twelve Colonies' gate, and prevented the Colonies from dealing back to Kobol."

"There's still the question of the limited DHD at the Colonies' gate though. Why not give them a fully functional DHD?" Daniel queried Carter. Hammond knew that these two could discuss these kinds of things for hours.

"Just to interrupt, but what do you believe our best course of action would be regarding these Colonials," Hammond interrupted. Carter and Daniel paused for a moment, both looking at each other.

"Sir, I think that we should do whatever we need to do to get the Colonials on our side. We have much more to gain from an agreement than they do," Daniel said.

"And, with what we were just discussing before, if we can get access to the Colonial's gate and analyse it, we might learn some things about re-programming Stargates. If we can access the world that is locked out from their gate, we might get access to some more advanced technology. That is, if their 'Gods' are advanced aliens like in so many other parts of the galaxy," Carter replied. Hammond agreed with them both. He found it surprising that the Colonials had no prior knowledge of the Stargate before SG1 arrived though. They would be able to use that to their advantage. Hammond quickly dismissed Jackson and Carter. He had a call to make.

**A Few Hours Later**

**Earth – Stargate Command – Daniel Jackson's Office**

Daniel could feel something coursing through his veins, ever since he and Carter had began to talk about the Colonial's DHD. He knew that there was something significant about the Colonial Society. He had been going over his original research that led them to the Stargate coordinates they had first dialled. He couldn't believe what he found only after half an hour. Now with a preliminary understanding of the Colonial's language and how it related to some ancient Greek and Latin dialects, he had found that the original translation he made of the race that owned the planet was wrong. His original translation was that the gate address would take them to "Lobok", home of the "Lobokians". Re-translating it with what he knew now, it turned out that his translations were backwards. The actual translation was "Kobol" and "Kobolians" respectively. Carter had been right: the gate address that they originally dialled did belong to the Planet Kobol, but it had been forwarded somehow to the Twelve Colonies. Daniel was also picking up more and more similarities to the brief rundown he had gotten on the story of Kobol from the Colonials on their trip from Picon to Ragnar. Even the exodus story in the Bible had too many similarities for Daniel to feel comfortable with, and that was written about two thousand to three thousand years ago.

There were too many coincidences between the development of the Colonial and Earth civilisations. The fact that each of the Colonies was named after a constellation visible only in Earth's night sky was another one of them. Daniel knew deep down that there was something going on that was much much greater than anyone was aware of.


	8. Chapter 8

Origins of Humanity

Chapter 8

**Two Weeks Later**

**Earth – Stargate Command – Conference Room**

The Conference Room of the SGC was packed with high-ranking members of the US Government, SGC, Colonial Government and Colonial Military. This was the final in negotiations between the governments of Earth and the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Upon signing of the "Agreement of Cooperation" that was sitting on the conference table, trade of technologies, concepts and resources would officially begin between Earth and the Twelve Colonies.

SG1 were present in the room as the SGC and Colonial personnel reviewed the agreement for the last time. Carter had attempted to be kept in the loop with all of the negotiations, but found it hard between learning about Colonial technology and civilisation, trying to hack their Stargate, and maintaining her role at the SGC.

They had managed to discover the actual coordinates of the Colonial's gate, instead of the coordinates for Kobol which automatically forwarded them to the Colonials. There was definitely no doubt that the locked-out address was the planet Kobol from Colonial scripture. After the Colonials had the chance to get their language experts in to look at their gate, the other symbol on the Colonial's control pedestal was an ancient symbol for Kobol.

Plotting the Stargate address of the Colonies revealed that they were in a very sparsely populated region of space. Earth was situated roughly three fifths of the way along one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way. They had previously known that the majority of Stargates and civilisations were situated closer to the core of the galaxy and that there wasn't too much rimward of Earth, Earth being considered one of the 'outer planets' already by the Goa'uld. It turned out that the Colonies were situated out there, approximately four-fifths of the way out along the same arm of the Milky Way that Earth was situated on. From the database held by the SGC, that area of space was also sparsely populated with Stargates. Close to two dozen were situated rimward of Earth the entire arm of the Milky Way, Kobol and the Twelve Colonies included. That isolation had essentially saved the Colonies from detection by the Goa'uld, and would continue to do so if they weren't alerted to their presence.

Over the last two weeks a lot of information had been shared about the SGC, Earth and the Stargate Network with the Twelve Colonies to help them understand their place in the wider galaxy. They had been alerted about the Goa'uld and given a quick rundown on their capabilities by Teal'c. In his own way, Teal'c told the Colonial representatives that the Goa'uld were not to be tangled with, and that a Ha'tak vessel would shred a Colonial Battlestar if they were to ever face off against each other.

Carter had been at that demonstration. They had seen the full capabilities of a Colonial Battlestar. It had been one of the most spectacular and utterly frightening displays she had ever seen. A four kilometre wide hole through an asteroid field had been created instantly from a full broadside by, apparently, a relatively small and weak class of Battlestar. They had also learned that the armour on the Battlestars was particularly sturdy, being able to absorb multiple nuclear detonations. Although a Ha'tak would be able to easily destroy a Battlestar, Carter knew that if the shields of a Ha'tak could be taken out, the Colonial Battlestar would easily be the victor. But that wasn't the case in reality and it wasn't worth her while thinking about such things. However it was something to think about in the longer scheme of things.

It was for these reasons why the biggest request of Earth by the Colonies came as such a shock. Since the Colonial Stargate was locked and could only dial Earth, the Colonials wanted to set up an independent, Colonial controlled Stargate Command Centre within Cheyenne Mountain, using Earth's Stargate to explore the galaxy. Earth immediately advised against it, outlining how the use of the Stargate network alerted the Goa'uld to Earth's presence, endangering the entire planet. The Colonials responded by stating that it would be a matter of _when_, not _if_ the Goa'uld discovered the Colonies, and acquiring technology through the Stargate network to help them defend themselves against such threats was their best chance at survival in the wider galaxy.

There was also the risk factor to Earth. Allowing the Colonials to use Earth's gate would attract additional attention to Earth, even from the Goa'uld. Native populations aware of the Stargate, and hostile Jaffa forces would identify Colonial Personnel as being from Earth, if that was where they were dialling the gate back to. This allowed the SGC to have some very heavy bargaining power with the Colonial Government. For starters, at least one SGC personnel was to accompany all Colonial SGC missions off-world to ensure that the interests of Earth were protected. Earth had also used the provision of an Earth-based Colonial SGC to obtain schematics for the Colonial's propulsion, energy systems and artificial gravity systems. The engineers and scientists that would be stationed at the Colonial SGC would be required to devote a percentage of their time to assisting SGC personnel developing and retro-fitting these technologies, allowing for the rapid inclusion of them into early prototypes already under development by the SGC.

The other big request that had come as a condition of the Colonies even negotiating with Earth was that all nations of Earth had to be briefed about the Stargate and Stargate Programme within three years, all technologies gathered as part of the SGC dispersed to said nations within four years, and an internationally agreed upon Council set up within ten years to run the programme. The Colonials would not deal with only one nation state of the entire planet, but recognised that the politics behind revealing a secret as big as the Stargate to the governments of other powers would take time and some careful manoeuvring. The Colonials gave the SGC and US a template to follow to ensure that it occurred as smoothly as possible, having managed to unite not only twelve planets, but also many nation states on those twelve planets. The SGC and President knew that the Colonies were subtly compelling Earth to play by the Colonial's rules, but no one doubted that it was a good thing that was needed if Earth was to remain seriously invested in the Stargate for the future.

There were a myriad of other items that had been negotiated between Earth and the SGC, but they were too numerous for Carter to recall without the agreement written in front of her. She watched as the agreement was signed, and information packages instantly handed over from both sides. That was what she'd been waiting for. After all Earth personnel had been dismissed, she quickly returned to her laboratory to begin to have a look over the designs that they had just acquired from the Colonies. It was going to be an interesting night.

**One Day Later**

**Picon – Fleet Headquarters – Director's Office**

Four weeks ago, Director Tyndall was thinking of retiring from this job. He was becoming an old man, and he had been tiring from the increasing amount of friction generated by his job. At every turn, every time he tried to get something practical done, there was more and more resistance from the government. But the events that happened four weeks ago changed all that. There was no way that he was going to retire now. He felt young again. Never in his position as Director did the Colonial Military have a single purpose that was backed by the Colonial Government. The Fleet had more money than it knew what to do with, compared to the budget for the previous five years.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by a knock at the door. His secretary alerted him that his guests were here. He watched as the two Battlestar Commanders walked into his office and saluted him. He saluted back and advised them to be at ease.

"Before we commence, I will need you both to sign these non-disclosure agreements. What I am about to tell you is so far above your pay grade its' not funny," Tyndall said to them, half jokingly. He watched as both Commander William Adama and Commander Helena Cain signed the agreements that he had sitting on his desk.

"Sir," Adama said as he handed Tyndall the documents.

"Do you know Adama that I was only one class ahead of you at the Academy," Tyndall said, slightly throwing Adama and Cain off-track.

"Yes Sir, I was aware of that," Adama replied.

"And look at us now. A Battlestar Commander and the Director of the Colonial Fleet," Tyndall said. He knew that he was throwing Adama and Cain off-guard, but he wanted to see how he handled it. He let his words ring in their ears for a few more moments than were necessary. "But that could change for you. If you accept this mission, it could see you stepping into my shoes," Tyndall continued. He could see that Adama was truly interested now, and paying absolute attention to Tyndall. "And Cain, I know that you have aspirations. You could see some of those met if you take this mission as well," Tyndall said before continuing. "Before I begin, I want to make it clear that nothing is to leave this room at all. I am about to give you both the opportunity to accept or reject a mission that will change the Colonies forever. The mission is so important that it is classified Level 9," he said, watching Adama and Cain's faces to gauge their reaction. He saw them both give a slight nod, suggesting to continue.

"What I'm about to say is completely true. I would appreciated it if you left all of your questions to the end," he stated. Tyndall then proceeded to tell both Adama and Cain about the discovery of SG1 and the Stargate, the presence of the Goa'uld in the galaxy, and the general place of the Twelve Colonies with respect to galactic powers.

"Your mission is to lead a fleet of two Battlestars and accompanying support ships far beyond the red-line to this location here, approximately five thousand light years away from the Colonies," Tyndall explained. "There are four systems within fifty light-years of each other, all of which have Stargates. Once you are in the area, you are to obtain one or more Stargates and bring them back to the Colonies." What he was asking was for them to venture out further than any Colonial had been since the exodus from Kobol, potentially through enemy territory, to pick up a device that they had only just learned about. "Our analysts predict that although this is in the opposite direction to the armistice line, the Cylons may be gradually circling around us, so there is the chance that you may encounter the Cylons," Tyndall continued.

"What would our engagement orders be if we did?" Cain asked.

"The Cylons would only be engaged if they attempted to use overwhelming force against you. If you were discovered, you would state that you are a peaceful expedition in search of the planet Kobol," Tyndall replied. He knew that they might get away with not starting a war if the Colonial Battlestars tried to cut and run to avoid the Cylons, and only stayed and fought if it were absolutely necessary. He was hoping that the dynamic between the two, Cain and Adama, would prevent that though. Adama had the wisdom that came with age, and Tyndall knew that he had a loyalty to the ways that saved them during the first Cylon war – no networks or advanced computer technology present on a Battlestar above what was necessary. Cain was an up-and –comer, but had a very sharp tactical mind and would do whatever was necessary to get the mission accomplished. Tyndall hoped that the two would play off against each other, resulting in a far better outcome and a close team.

"What would we be going out there with?" Adama queried.

"You'll both be given command of the latest Mercury-Class Battlestars, the Zeus and Pegasus. A number of scientific, astronomy, fuel and refining ships would accompany you, along with six escorts. You both would have joint command of the entire fleet," Tyndall replied.

"I will have to think about this. This may be a one-way trip," Adama said.

"You have one hour. And you both can't leave this room," Tyndall replied as he walked out of the room, already knowing what their answer would be. No one could turn down an opportunity like the one he had just presented them. They both just needed time to realise what the ramifications of their mission would be.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **So this chapter outlines the direction that this story is going to take. I can guarantee you that the 'alliance' between Earth and the Colonies is going to end up drastically changing the galaxy and how the Stargate story plays out. Please leave plenty of reviews!


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Notes: Another chapter. This is centred around the SG1 episode 2x04 "Gamekeeper". I chose this episode because the basic principles of it can be drastically altered and extended to include the Colonials. The point of this chapter is to illustrate just how 'different' things 'could' turn out if the Colonials are present on SG1 missions and the SGC having 'Colonial resources' available.

There are also a number of things I have extrapolated on and incorporated from "Caprica".

Origins of Humanity

Chapter 9

**P7J-989**

The air was crisp, and slightly cool even for this time in the day. The sky was spectacled with large puffy clouds, moving lazily across the sky. Pine trees surrounded them, looking almost identical to the ones that surrounded her house growing up. When Sasha Alexandria emerged from the Stargate she almost felt as if she was back home on her family's grazing property on Scorpion. It looked almost identical, except for a large dark dome like structure in the distance. The Colonial Stargate Command was not fully operational yet, but Earth had agreed to let some Colonial teams tag along with some of Earth's SG teams to build their experience. So far it had worked exceptionally well with the Colonials providing some much needed fire support on a few missions previously.

Sasha wasn't going through a flashback to her childhood past though. She was further from the Colonies than any Colonial had been, staring at Earth's premier Stargate Team, SG1, as they lay trapped in four pods that had reached out with tentacle like appendages and dragged them into the pod. SG1 were only four in a field of thousands of the local inhabitants who lay trapped in the pods that were protected by a transparent glass dome, not unlike those that covered the Colonial high-class inter-colony cruise liners.

Sasha was not part of the Colonial Team, CGT3, that had been dispatched through the gate with SG1. After SG1 had been apprehended by the devices, CGT3 had dispatched for assistance from Earth through the Gate. Sasha was a computer expert who had been working on unlocking the Colonial Stargate alongside the Earth teams for the past three weeks. Prior to that she had been working in a top-secret research laboratory aiming to advance pre-war computer technology in the event they were able to counter Cylon cyber attacks, if they ever turned up again. What they did at that laboratory made Gaius Baltar look like a primary school teacher in comparison. It was no large leap for the Colonial Military to seconder researchers from this, already top-secret does not exist type of laboratory, to the Colonial Stargate Program.

Sasha was one of a number of specialists that had been sent to P7J-989 via Earth as part of the team to recover SG1 from the devices. SG1 had been lucky that the Colonial Gate Team were present when they had been snatched by the devices. If they had come here alone, what appeared to be the standard operating procedure for Earth SG teams, they would have been trapped in the devices with no backup and no one to contact Earth and ask for assistance.

Lieutenant Lacresha Batiatus snapped Sasha out of her semi-daydream as she came over to address SG3 and the Colonial recovery team.

"From our initial analysis, the people in the device are receiving oxygen and a steady stream of macronutrients directly into their bloodstream. There are also other compounds that are being injected into them of unknown origin," Batiatus, a Colonial military doctor who was part of the Colonial Recovery Team, explained. "Overall, I would say that SG1 are not in any immediate danger. However we do not know what these other compounds are that are being injected into them. There are also electrical pulses that are being channelled towards their brain by these two arms that appear to link to an underground main beneath each machine." Sasha saw Lacresha look towards her, signalling that it was now Sasha's turn to inspect the machine.

She approached one of the machines housing one of the indigenous population, not wanting to accidentally disrupt any processes occurring and potentially harming SG1. She inspected two short tentacle like appendages that were locking each person's head in place and seemed to be emitting a soft orange light onto their forehead. They were created out of some kind of flexible, metallic substance. She cut into one of them with a small electronics knife, revealing a small glass tube in the centre which was glowing the same colour as the light being emitted into the person's head. Sasha rummaged through her backpack and put on some magnifying spectacles for working on extremely small electronics and inspected the glass cylinder. It appeared to be a form of fibre-optic cable.

Sasha thought that it was fortunate that the Colonials were involved in this mission. Despite the Colonial's setbacks in computer technology because of the Cylon War, the Colonials were still far beyond the level of Earth's computers. It had shown in the weeks that Sasha had spent analysing the Stargate on Caprica. Earth's portable computers were very bulky and vastly underpowered compared to even the Colonial's portable tablet systems. The tablet PC that she had with her was nothing compared to the standard systems that were prevalent throughout the Colonial military. She had a top of the line model that she had been using to analyse the Stargate.

Sasha placed a standard interface device onto the optical cable and hooked it up to her tablet PC. As she had hoped, she was able to intercept the signal. She was expecting the signal pattern to be a jumbled mess because she didn't understand the alien computer language, let alone methods of transmitting whatever data that it was transmitting into the subject. That was why Sasha was completely surprised when the signal pattern appeared to be relatively familiar.

"Come here, come here," she signalled to Lieutenant Batiatus and the rest of the Colonial and Earth technicians. Immediately the Colonial members came over, followed a few moments later by the Earth technicians: the translation device strapped to her vest taking a few moments to advise the Earth members of what she had said.

"Look at this. This signal. It is very familiar to the signal emitted by a holo-band," Sasha said. She noticed a few looks from some of the Colonial members of the team. None of them were meant to know what a holo-band signal was meant to look like, let alone be intimately familiar with it as Sasha was from her previous research. "I would say from this, that all of the people in these pods are being forcibly kept in some kind of virtual environment," she further explained.

"How do we get them out?" one of the Earth technicians asked.

"We might have a way. I'll need to do some more analyses on this machine. If I'm right, I'll need clearance from some of the Colonial higher-ups to get some equipment and people from the Colonies," Sasha replied.

**One Day Later - P7J-989**

When Sasha returned to P7J-989 a day later accompanied by boxes of equipment and several of her old work colleagues, the atmosphere was very different. The Stargate was heavily guarded by an array of Earth and Colonial personnel with most of the Colonial personnel fairly tense.

"What's happened?" she asked Lieutenant Batista who was waiting by the gate for them.

"A Colonial team was charged with exploring the complex. They found a large autonomous facility a few clicks away. It **was** filled with semi-sentinent robots that were harvesting and processing food which is distributed to all the pods," Lacresha said.

"It _was_ filled?" Sasha asked, not liking where this was going.

"They blew it up," Lacresha replied, nodding to Sasha.

"Cylons?" Sahsa said. "They couldn't be out here…" Sasha replied before Lacresha cut her off,

"They're not Cylons. It looks like the civilisation here developed them to take care of them while they were in stasis… and we just went and destroyed them," Lacresha said, emphasising the last part. Sasha didn't quite understand what Lacresha was saying for a few moments, and then it clicked.

"We destroyed part of the system that is keeping them alive," Sasha half said and half asked Lacresha.

"Yes. The system that was destroyed kept nutrients flowing to everyone's bodies," Lacresha replied. "Without it, everyone here will slowly starve, including SG1. It's imperative that you and your team stop the neurological transmission keeping everyone here in stasis so that we can get them out," Lacresha said.

"Well then I guess we'd better start working then," Sasha replied.

It took them twelve hours before they were confident of what was going in with the pods. Analysis of the signal showed that while it was remarkably similar to what had been developed for the holo-band and other neural interface devices held by the Colonies prior to the war, it was still fairly different as well. While the signal was similar, the computing language was almost completely different from Colonial and Earth systems. They had been spending the best part of two hours deciding how to overcome that obstacle. They did have an option that might be feasible, but it was only experimental still and hadn't been tested yet. As part of their previous research, they had developed a system whereby they could use the neural interface and a virtual representation of computer code and programs to write and adapt programs using the power of the human mind. It was hoped that it would allow the Colonials to have the ability to rapidly write computer programs and protocols on the same order of magnitude as the Cylons could, or at least, as the Cylons could the last time they came across them. Of course, the Cylons would always have the advantage in this field, but humans had a much greater capacity for imagination and adaptation, which would hopefully give them the advantage at times.

The option that they pursued involved hooking up this experimental holo-band and computer system to the stasis pod. Hopefully after a while it would allow the user to adapt their thoughts into the native computer language. If that could happen, then they would have a hope of getting the people out of these stasis devices.

At the moment they were waiting for Robert Halhok. He was currently hooked up to the stasis device with the holo-band. They had been waiting for about ¾ of an hour, hoping that Robert's mind would be able to learn and adapt the local computer code with the experimental neural interface than they could hope to dream of without it. If it worked, it would have drastic implications for Colonial cyber defence works from now on.

Sashsa was still trying to get over the situation that she now found herself in. It was remarkable that they were light-years from home on an alien world, whose inhabitants had developed technologies partially similar to what the Colonials had before the Cylon war, albeit with a different purpose. Regardless of what happened, she would push to try and take some of these stasis pods and some of the computer mainframes with them so that they could be studied. It could provide further insight into computing and controlling artificial intelligence that the Colonial's did not possess, potentially giving them an edge against the Cylons.

They were running on artificial lighting now as the sun descended below the horizon. Lieutenant Batista had advised Sasha that they were approaching the first deadline on cutting the connection between all of the pods and the signal being transmitted into everyone's brain. Because the local population had been getting their essential nutrients in just the right quantities for so long, their bodies would rapidly start to shut down once the flow of nutrients were shut down. The point at which they estimated that damage would start to occur to the local population was fast approaching, and they still didn't have any word from Robert that he had successfully interfaced with the signal. For all they knew, his brain could have been fried and he was sitting there, a vegetable.

Fifteen minutes later and they finally got some movement out of Robert. He took his holo-band off, rubbed his eyes and looked at them all.

"Wow," was all that he said, a few times.

"What was it like?"

"Were you able to interface?"

"Did it work?"

They were just some of the questions that Sasha heard that were bombarding Robert. He just sat there, not listening.

"I can turn it off right now," he said to everyone. "They are all locked up in a collective system, sharing each other's memories," he started. "They've been like this for 40 years. When SG1 arrived and entered the machines, they all pretty much swarmed on SG1's memories for new experiences," he continued. "They're not letting them go."

"And you think you can get them out?" one of Sasha's other colleagues asked Robert.

"Yes. Although their system appears complicated and rather more advanced than what we can do, we can shut it off relatively easily," Robert replied, "Their system is only advanced in terms of its complexity. It has either a simple AI or a very dumb person acting to control and defend the system from outside intruders like us. Even though we're just starting out in this ability, we've focused our research in this area around disabling and defending against remarkably more intelligent and capable AI systems, we should be able to take the system down and wake everyone up with ease."

"It won't harm the occupants?" Lacresha asked him.

"I don't think so. From what I can tell, the AI has gone a bit rouge and it seems to be keeping everyone in there. If we shut it down, everyone in the system should be able to wake with ease," Robert said.

"Let's do it," Sasha said.

**Two Days Later**

**Earth – Stargate Command – Mission Debriefing**

General George Hammond sat in a room with a number of key personnel who were intrinsic in running the Colonial mission to P7J-989. He was frightened of what had happened on that mission. Earth and the Colonies had awoken the inhabitants of the stasis pods, who had been in there for nine-hundred years too long from the reports Hammond had read, and had potentially gained an advanced ally. They had done so recklessly and by the skin of their teeth. The Colonials had panicked when seeing an AI and had blown the building up. Hammond had enough experience to know that it wasn't a tactical decision that had been made, but a decision made in the moment out of fear of the Cylons and advanced technology in general.

Earth had been unable to manage the situation, and that included the Colonials. While two SG teams had been supplied for the mission to rescue SG1, the Colonials had supplied close to fifty people. It had been an Earth mission that required the Colonial's assistance after it went pear shaped and SG1 had been caught in the machines. The two Earth SG teams hadn't been able to manage all of the Colonial personnel that went through the gate, resulting in the destruction of P7J-989's food manufacturing system.

It was this reason why George had called for an Earth only debriefing about the mission.

"I think that we don't know what we've gotten ourselves in for," Carter said, regarding the original agreement with the Colonials permitting them to use Earth's Stargate. "Some of the Earth technicians who had been on P7J-989 while we were trapped have shown me the technology that the Colonial's used to get us out," Carter said.

"And…?" Hammond asked, prompting Carter to continue.

"It's frightening. We knew that they had taken a giant step backwards in terms of their technology after the Cylon war, but it appears that a secret research laboratory has been working on advancing the pre-war technology. The abilities that they showed us were remarkable: an ability to directly interface the human brain with a computer network, and use the power and reasoning of a human being to control computers, it's astounding," Carter continued.

"Additionally, I just had a quick look at the estimates that our guys at the CIA did for the amount of resources that the Colonials will put towards their Stargate Program. This is all based on what we know of the Colonials, and our best extrapolations. But if they keep the program a secret like we have, and if they divert the same percentage of resources to the program that we have, we estimate that their program will have more manpower and resources than the entire US military," Carter continued.

"That's a big win for us. But we can't possibly route that amount of activity though our gate," Jack said.

"I agree," Hammond said. "Our top analyst's believe that the Colonials know that as well. They believe that the Colonials will try and get their own gate that can dial other planets," Hammond said, communicating that piece of information to everyone in the room.

"Are we happy about that?" Jack asked.

"I believe it would be a beneficial outcome," Teal'c said.

"Our analyst's believe so as well," Hammond replied. "But for now, we're going to have to deal with the Colonial's using our gate, whether we like it or not."


	10. Chapter 10

Origins of Humanity

Chapter 10

**Battlestar Zeus – Unnamed system past the limit of Colonial explored space**

If you don't close your eyes when entering an FTL jump you are left for a few moments not being able to see anything. It is a similar effect as staring into the sun for too long. Gundwyck McReardon had made that mistake, his vision only returning after their Raptor had already taken off.

Gundwyck McReardon was an Environmental Analyst (ENVA) attached to the Colonial Marines based out of the Battlestar Zeus. He had been transferred to the Zeus along with half of the Galactica's crew. His job was to continually assess the natural environment of habitable and non-inhabitable places that the marines went during their everyday missions. He was only required on missions that would potentially involve zero-gravity, zero-oxygen or missions that were not on any of the Colonies or the normal outposts. As the majority of Colonial military operations in the last forty years had been conducted inside known space, people in McReardon's profession were few and far between.

McReardon would be essential to this misson though. Four hours ago, the advanced reconnisance divison of the marines aboard Galactica had been called into a briefing, supposedly lasting one and half hours. McReardon was ordered into that briefing as well. Most of the fleet assembled around the Pegasus and Zeus knew that they were out here hunting for something very valuable. When the command staff of the mission had told them about the Stargate and its supposed location on a planet only one jump away, McReardon learned just how important the mission was.

Orbital reconissance raptors had already been sent ahead and had taken satellite imagery of the entire planet. Analysts within the fleet detected signs of numerous towns across the planet, all of them deserted and in ruin. They had also detected tell-tale marks of nuclear explosions. Ten marine reconissance teams were being dispatched to various settlements around the planet simultaneously with the recovery mission for the Stargate to learn just what had happened on the planet. McReardon was part of one of those missions.

The planet was not unlike Tauron from orbital view. A few large and rather arid continents circled the equator of the planet, with cold seas occupying a third of the northern and southern hemispheres. Large dust storms could be seen rolling across the landscape, intermingled with large forests surrounding inland water bodies and rivers. McReardon snapped out of his gaze at the planet just as the Electronics Countermeasures Officer (ECO) Helo Agathon indicated to prepare for orbital entry.

"I hate this part," McReardon said out loud to no one in particular. He was sitting with his back against the wall in the cargo compartment of the raptor, strapped in next to others of the unit he was attached to. The thing that got him about entering orbit was the fact that they taught you everything that could go wrong, but then said 'but don't worry, that's what the pilots are for'.

"It becomes nothing once you've done it enough," the marine next to him said. They continued the rest of the journey in silence, McReardon catching a few smirks between the marines at his expense every time they hit major turbulence. They quickly passed through the upper atmosphere and flight became stable.

"I'll take your word for it," McReardon replied just as they hit the first patch of heavy turbulence, juttering the Raptor.

"Two minutes to landing zone," the ECO stated. Simultaneously the rest of the marines started to un-buckle their harnesses and do last-minute preparations on their weapons.

"What's the readings Lieutenant?" McReardon asked Agathon. He turned and looked at his sensors before reading out a list of standard measuements

"Gravity is 1.15 Caprican Standard. Oxygen levels are slightly elevated at 22%. Humidity at our current elevation is 10%. Temperature 35 degrees standard. Ultra-Violet rating of 13. Atmospheric radiation is within standard limits," Helo read out.

"We're good to go as soon as we land," McReardon told the squad commander who just replied with a nod. Soon afterwards they settled down onto the ground with a soft thump and the doors on either side of the landing raptor folded up, marines deploying and setting up a perimeter.

They had landed just outside ruined village by the looks of things from the air. The vegetation around the village was not overgrown and had not actively began to reclaim any of the buildings yet, indicating that it had once been historically cleared. From what McReardon could see from the distance, it must have only been ten or twenty years since vegetation clearing stopped around the village, indicating that whatever had happened here was only just recent.

Overhead two vipers did a flyby of the village. They were circling between all the landing zones to provide air cover and air support if they needed it, which was highly doubtful.

"Clearing of vegetation around the village stopped roughly ten years ago by y estimations. No one has been here since that," McReardon said after shuffling over to the commander of the marines.

"Good. Our perimeter is almost set up. Once it is done, we'll sweep the village for anything that might be alive or a threat. We can move in from there," the commander replied. McReardon turned his gaze to watch the remaining marine teams move out. There were twenty in this landing party, spread between three raptors. Two of the teams had already moved out and McReardon could see a few members still disappearing into the distance to circle around the village and form the perimeter.

"Perimeter secure. Sweep now beginning," McReardon heard over his hand-held radio. It was only a few minutes until he heard more, "there are what appears to be human skeletons everywhere, scattered around the village," he heard. There was constant radio chatter, the marines outlining what they were finding in their initial sweep of the village for security threats. They were only a few minutes in when a tense, strained voice came over the radio.

"Code Red Snake. Code Red Snake. North-east corner of the village," McReardon heard. Code Red Snake was short for the requirement of a senior officer to attend the location at hand, where a defensive perimeter was being set up. McReardon saw the commanding officer start to jog toward the village, waving his hands for numerous people around him to join him. In McReardon's mind, the commander's sweep had included him and he joined the back of the group of about five people. His justification was that there was a high probability of there being an environmental threat to one or more marines, because there was obviously nothing alive or no technology in the village that could pose the marines any harm. McReardon was the best to handle that situation.

Jogging through the village, McReardon could see that many of the houses were made out of mud-brick and logs. Many were burned out and had vegetation growing out them, reclaiming the land that humans had taken from them. A lot of the houses looked like they had seen battle-damage from tools of modern warfare. As the marines had said, there were quite a few human skeletons around the village. Some were half in doorways while others just lay, weathering in the street.

There were a lot of marines crowding around something on the north-east corner of the village. McReardon followed the commanding officer as he barged a hole through the crowd of marines. He stopped dead in his tracks, his heart almost coming out of his throat when he saw what was on the ground. It was a horror to every Colonial, right down to their sub-conscious. Lying on the ground was the damaged body of a Cylon Centurion, battered, bent, missing an arm and with a stone-axe protruding from the middle of its head.

**Battlestar Zeus**

Excitement had run through Commander Cain's veins when they had reached their target system. They were finally here and she would be able to see the device for herself. It also broke up the boredom of jumping between empty systems. Since this system had one of these 'Stargates' present she had assumed that the planet would be habitable.

Now she stood on Commander Adama's ship, getting a briefing from the commander of the reconissance mission to the planet and charged with recovery fo the Stargate. Cain prided herself on being able to keep it calm and collected during stressful situations, but now her mind was racing with a million thoughts flying through her head. She didn't have any control of any of them.

"There were human skeletons everywhere. Although the buildings were old and primitive, the majority of them that were left standing had received explosive damage," one of the ground team said. She couldn't believe it. There _were_ humans on this planet. The first planet that they had actually gone to, other than Earth, that had humans on it. It didn't fit with everything that Cain had been taught growing up. She didn't put very much weight behind the Sacred Scrolls documenting the Colonial's exodus from Kobol and the whole religious system that the Colonial culture had been based around. She had always suspected that there were a lot of truthes in the Sacred Scrolls that were overlooked, missed out or mis-interpreted. She wouldn't go as far as to say that she was a conspiracy theorist, but more logical. Anyone with a logical working mind could see that there were large gaps in the sacred texts and story of their exodus. It didn't take a genius to work out. From what the mission commander had told her already, she knew that there was something on this planet that would contribute to their history. She knew that deep down inside, once they unlocked the secrets of this planet, Cain would be secretly saying 'I was right' on the inside.

"That's not all," the officer continued, pausing to add suspense, "once we entered the village, there was something else we found. The remnants of a Cylon Centurion," he said. Before Cain could take in what the ground team member had said, he continued. "It looked like they exterminated the entire village."

"Centurions. Out here?" Cain heard herself ask, not knowing it was her own voice at first.

"It looks like they slaughtered the village. The vipers spotted the results of nuclear detonations from the upper atmosphere as well. There are large patches where nothing grows, much like the irradiated zones on the Colonies," he continued.

"They nuked them from orbit?" Adama asked.

"It looks like they nuked a few of the larger settlements, and sent in ground forces to investigate some of the smaller villages," the officer replied. Cain didn't say a word, just kept looking at the mission commander as her mid was racing. She had felt some, curious thought about the people on this planet and what had happened to them. It was not a common event in the Colonies where an extinct civilisation could be studied to determine the reasons behind their downfall. All the Colonies had were a few histories from Kobol, translated into the religious zealotry which was the Sacred Scrolls, and the rise and fall of numerous empires across the Colonies soon after settlement. The models for those civilisations were mostly the same – rise up, expand your powerbase, expand it too far, and then implode.

"So the Cylons left the Colonies and decided to slaughter weaker civilisations of humans?" Cain half questioned, half stated, bitterness dripping from her speech.

"This is our fault," Adama stated.

"How is this our fault?" Cain replied. "We didn't even know this planet existed until three weeks ago."

"We created them. The Cylons. Then we let them loose on the universe, without our knowing. It's our fault that this planet is dead. You can't create a monster and then wipe your hands of your creation," Adama replied. Those words gave Cain pause as she mulled the concept over. She would have to think about it later, as other parts of her mind were still churning over the new information.

"What about the device?" Cain asked. "Is it still there? Did the Cylons take it?"

"That's where things get really interesting," the mission commander replied. Cain could tell that the officer meant to continue but the words wouldn't come out of his mouth.

"Yes officer, what is it?" Adama urged.

"It doesn't even look like the Cylons knew of the device. It is not near any settlements at all…," he started. After pausing for a few moments, he continued "also, the device was surrounded by twelve statues of the Lords of Kobol, each about two-storeys tall."

"_I told you so,"_ flashed through Cain's thoughts before it was just as quickly discarded and put away to think about later, when Cain had some private time and her thoughts could be her own.

"They were standing around the Stargate, as if they were guarding the planet from whatever came through." There was silence in the room for about a minute.

"Sergent. Begin extracting the device as fast as you can," Adama said. "Not a word about the statues to anyone that doesn't need to know. You're dismissed." Cain looked at Adama, cottoning onto what he was getting at. Even though they were Colonial Military, there were a fair few people who were very religious through the fleet. The last thing that they needed was religious hysteria within their personnel. After the officer left, Cain could feel Adama's eyes on her. But she didn't say a word. Her mind was racing.

"What are you thinking?" Adama finally said, breaking Cain from her thoughts.

"There are three other planets," Cain replied. She looked to Adama, knowing that he wasn't following. "Our mission orders state that there are three other planets close by with Stargates on them. We should investigate them and see what happened," Cain explained.

"Our other mission orders are to retrieve the device and bring it back to the Colonies," Adama replied. "We should make that our imperative."

"But we're here now. We need to investigate the Cylon presence and find out whatever we can about them. If they've done this to the other planets nearby, and if they've gotten hold of a Stargate," Cain replied.

"And what if we encounter the Cylons, live Cylons. They could chase us all the way back to the Colonies. Or worse, we could start a war," Adama replied. Before Cain could respond, Adama continued almost cutting her off, "Once we have the device back to Colonial Space, we will be able to use it to travel to the other planets."

"That will take another week and a half of jumping back to the Colonies. Then another few weeks to organise another mission back here… We have the personnel, the equipment and the means to do this now. We need to know as much about the Cylon presence before we return to the Colonies…" Cain started, allowing a few moments for her words to sink in. "The armistice line is on the other side of the Colonies. My bet is that the Cylons came out this far to start encircling us, and encountered these worlds," Cain stated. "We…" she started before Adama cut her off.

"I know that… Fine. But we need to get the Stargate back to the Colonies as quick as possible," Adama replied. There were a few moments of silence in the room as the two commanders thought about their options.

"You take Zeus and the fleet back to Colonial Space with the device. We fuel up the Pegasus and investigate the other planets and then follow you home a week afterwards," Cain suggested. Cain could see Adama thinking about her proposal. It was the most valid – that way the most protection was given to the Stargate in case they ran into the Cylons.

"Okay, I agree," Adama replied. Cain knew her face didn't betray her emotions. She_ needed_ to find out what had happened to those other planets. Secretly, she knew that they were likely heading into a conflict with the Cylons in the future. Cain wanted to make sure that she was one of the ones spearheading that conflict, and what better way of doing so than by bringing back extensive reconnaissance of Cylon activity behind Colonial lines.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Notes: Thankyou for the reviews and messages! They are much appreciated.

I'm going to be developing the Colonial side for the next few chapters. The Earth and SG1 side will be in there as well, but not as much. I will get to that though, but first the Colonies need to get some things done!

Some responses to reviews that are probably overdue:

Animefan29: the last chapter was a prelude and foreshadowing for an entire story-arc in this story. It was building up to some things. So no, not a lot happened, but to those of us who know the future, quite a bit happened – hehe.

Tim81182: Yeah I started this story several years ago as a way to overcome writers block for other stories I was working on. I've only picked it up recently. You can probably tell the difference in writing style and grammar between the two periods.

Stark40763: we'll be getting back to that storyline, and the Colonial command's response to their actions on the 'sleeping people hooked into a network world'.

Darkfinder: that's exactly what they're doing

Nedy Rahn: thanks for your messages! They've helped me think about my outline for this story and refine it!

Origins of Humanity

Chapter 11

**Battlestar Pegasus **

Commander Helena Cain barely noticed the distortion from an FTL jump now. There had been little reason to do them when they were in-system and were a rare occurrence. On this mission they had performed rapid jumps to get out here quickly to recover the Stargate. That had gotten most of the crew completely comfortable with FTL jumps and reduced the side-effects.

She had been mid-stride during this jump, moving from her quarters to the CIC. The Battlestar Pegasus had now been away from the fleet, operating alone in deep space, for four days. In those four days they had surveyed two of three other solar systems that were meant to contain Stargates. In each system they had found a habitable world, which once was habited by a relatively primitive human society before it had been wiped out by the Cylons.

Surprisingly the solar systems they had surveyed had been remarkably scarce in resources, apart from those generated by a habitable world. The rest of each solar system had been characteristic of the barren nature of the universe, according to Colonial records prior to three months ago. None of the systems had any kind of asteroid belt or gas giants with any high concentrations of trace metals in their atmospheres. Tylium deposits were not economical for mining this far out from the Colonies.

As soon as they had stabilised from their jump, a series of raptors were launched on a mission to survey the system and map any habitable worlds and resources that they found, which was a high probability given that they knew that there was a Stargate in this system. This was their last system that they would survey before they would turn and trace their path back to the Colonies with their report.

It struck Commander Helena Cain as odd that these four systems with Stargates were spread relatively closely together in the grand scheme of things. It seemed as if they were clustered together. Granted, they were not clustered together nearly as much as the Colonies were, but considering the information that they had on their corner of the galaxy, they were still close. She pushed those thoughts to the side as she walked into the CIC.

"Status report?" She asked Jurgen Belzen, her Executive Officer.

"No contacts on DRADIS. CAP has been established. Reconnaissance raptors have launched. Landing party is gearing up and should leave within the next twenty minutes if the recon raptors give us the green light," Cain replied. They all knew the routine by now, having done it on three other planets before. Cain was not expecting anything else from this world. She knew that the Cylons were ruthless. They had almost nuked every settlement from orbit on the last world that they had visited, only having landed and killed the indigenous population in a few villages.

"Good. Launch some additional Raptors with the CAP to extend our DRADIS range to 1.5 standard," Cain replied before looking at the plot of the solar system on the electronic display table in the centre of the CIC.

Everything was going smoothly until twenty minutes later when they heard back from one of the reconnaissance Raptors early.

"Raptor four-two-zero to Pegasus Actual," Cain heard over the loudspeakers in CIC.

"Pegasus Actual, go ahead," Cain replied after picking up a handset and getting patched through to the Raptor.

"We can see signs of a current civilisation down on the night-side of the planet. Nothing extraordinary, but matching the scale of the previous worlds we've encountered," the Raptor pilot said.

"Copy that Raptor four-two-zero. Maintain orbital reconnaissance and do not approach the atmosphere. Return to Pegasus once complete," Cain replied. This was a new one. The last thing she expected was to encounter anyone alive on this planet. But then again, there might not be anyone alive. It might be a Cylon trick or the Cylons could have even set up small camps around the planet for some reason. "It looks like there's signs that someone's alive down there," Cain said to Belzen. "I want you to hold off on the landing party. We should proceed with the first contact protocols developed for the original mission on planet Alpha," Cain said to him.

"You're sure you want to make contact?" Belzen queried. "It could be Cylons," he added.

"I know. But if they're still alive, we've got to contact them and find out," Cain replied. "Ariantas, contact the reconnaissance teams and get them to start transmitting their data back from the planet so our analysts can start on it immediately. We can't wait for them to return," Cain said to their communications officer. She had a theory which was still forming in her mind, but she needed to see the layout of some features on the planet.

Half an hour later and Cain's theory was disproved. On the other three worlds they had surveyed, the Stargate had been isolated from any settlements. She had thought that maybe the civilisation on this planet had access to the Stargate and could have used technology and resources from it, or had migrated to this world from it. Unfortunately the story was the same for this planet though, the Stargate was on the other side of the planet and none of the villages looked like they had regular access to it.

Cain and the command staff picked four landing sites to make contact. One was the closest village to the Stargate, and the other three appeared to be relatively large villages and towns spread across the planet. According to their preliminary analysis, life-conditions on the planet were similar to the Colonies and the other worlds they had surveyed on this mission and there was nothing stopping them from implementing the plan that the fleet had for the first world they had landed on.

**Landing Party from the Battlestar Pegasus**

Gundwyck McReardon had the lucky job of stepping foot onto each of the worlds that they had surveyed so far. Each one of them had been exciting. To the untrained eye, each world looked relatively the same – blue skies, green trees, grass, dirt. But McReardon could tell the subtle differences. Whilst each planet did have green trees, they were all of a different species to each other. The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of each world, the gravity conditions, their orbits and tilts were all different. These produced different environments on the worlds. So far, each planet had nominal values of these variables within the range experienced by the Colonies, but each new world could present factors that were new and exciting.

The last world, Charlie Planet, had extraordinary atmospheric currents that distributed heat around the globe efficiently, causing almost no temperature differences from equator to pole. The warm climate of the world also resulted in there being no ice present anywhere on the globe. But the landscape had extensive scarring from glaciers that had previously slid across the landscape.

McReardon had been viewing his job as an Environmental Analyst in the Colonial Marines as a stepping stone to a much more lucrative career in the private sector. His long-term plans had been to leave the military in a few years after this mission and start his own contracting company. Now though, all of those plans were changing after he had stepped onto three alien worlds in the last week.

He was getting better at the atmospheric insertions now though. His first insertion on this mission hadn't gone so well for him. He was also starting to get along with some of the marines in his division, having been transferred from the Zeus when they had left to return to the Colonies. The rocking and vibrations of the Raptor as it descended through the atmosphere did not bother him as much anymore. He just closed his eyes and thought about something else, mainly what he was expecting on the planet below. The vibrations began to dissipate as they entered the atmosphere proper and slowed to a reasonable speed.

"Readings Lieutenant," he called out to the ECO. McReardon went through the mental checklist he had in his head and indicated to the ECO that all of the environmental valuables that could affect them on the ground were suitable and wouldn't pose any risk to the landing team.

Two minutes later and they were setting down approximately one kilometre from the village they were going to make contact with. It had been decided that they would fly in low and steady near the village, land and wait for the natives to come to them as they would definitely be noticed. That way the natives would not be as intimidated by the Colonials if they were all just standing around their ships not doing too much.

The Raptors touched down ten minutes later after taking what felt like a lazy cruise above the forest canopy. McReardon was shocked when he got out of the Raptor. It was approximately fifteen-hundred hours local time by his calculations and the sky was a deep, deep blue, almost purple colour. It definitely contrasted with the surrounding vegetation which was a deep green. They would wait for an hour before setting off towards the village if the locals did not come to visit. McReardon started using this time to begin to document some of their surroundings. He was going to begin to write papers about the four worlds they had visited on the trip back to the Colonies so he would have them sitting there ready to go if and when this ever went public. If not, they would be able to be used internally by the Colonial Military.

The marines had set up discrete zones of overlapping fields of fire to cover a fifty-metre radius around the two landed raptors. This way anyone who stayed within the fifty-metre 'go zone' would be covered if anything happened. The vegetation directly around the Raptors wasn't especially thick, consisting of a few bushes and some fairly tall grass so visibility around the Raptors wasn't impeded. McReardon had been checking out some of the local vegetation and soils within the go-zone for the last forty minutes. He was crouching down collecting a soil sample when he heard something moving through the vegetation towards him. He just had time to stand up before he got a glimpse of a relatively old balding man in rags stumbling towards him with his arms outstretched. The old man grabbed McReardon, hugged him and was mumbling profusely.

"McReardon, status?" he heard through his radio mounted to his chest plate. He had his arms up in the air, still allowing the old man to hug him. It was a surprise to McReardon. He wasn't expecting this.

"I'm fine. He's hugging me. No threat yet. He's saying something," McReardon replied into the radio. He got a quick chance to look to where the man had come from and could see younger people emerging from the bushes. They were moving fluidly and had what passed for camouflaged clothes on which more resembled rags. He got a quick glimpse of a few steel axes and some were carrying rather complicated looking bows. He pushed the man off and away from him as he was still mumbling, tears rolling down his face. Surprisingly, McReardon understood a few words that he man was saying. "Slow down, slow down. I can't understand you," McReardon said to him, hoping that he would understand. Visibly, the man took a moment and wiped the tears from his face. He was looking happy.

"Thank the Gods you came. We've been waiting thirty years for a rescue team," he said in perfect Colonial Standard.

**Battlestar Pegasus – CIC**

For the first time in her life since childhood, Commander Cain was speechless and in shock. Those words had made her feel light headed and she was using her hands, planted on the display table in the CIC to hold her up. She knew that everyone else was in shock as well, but she also knew that those words resonated with her more than most. She replayed them over and over in her head, trying to make sense of what she had heard.

"_Some of them are Colonial Prisoners taken during the Cylon War. They were mostly children when they were taken. They were dumped here by the Cylons amongst the native population."_

Those were the exact words of the field commander of the landing party. Helena's sister, Lucy Cain, had been taken during the last day of the Cylon War as Cain had hid in a shipping container from the nearby Cylon Centurions. That day had changed Commander Cain forever. She had vowed to join the military to help protect the Colonies, protect other families from being abducted, and to get revenge for her sister if the Cylons had ever returned. Now, there was a possibility, no matter how small it was, that Lucy might be down on that planet.

"Pegasus Actual, do you have a copy?" she heard through the handset.

"Commander," she heard Jurgen say as he put a reaffirming hand on her back. He was the only one on the ship who knew of Lucy and Helena's past. She looked to him and just nodded her head, feeling her emotions marshalling behind her focus and resolve.

"Get your teams to interview everyone they can. I want a list of names from all of the Colonials in each landing zone," Cain replied to the field commander. "Contact us if you require anything else." Commander Cain had literally just put the handset down when a beep emanated from the DRADIS.

"Contact, bearing 11254, 3200, 25413. Unknown configuration," Cain heard the weapons officer read out. The unknown ship wasn't close, but it wasn't far either. Considering the size of the solar system, it had jumped in just about on top of them.

"Action stations. Set Condition One throughout the ship. Launch Red Squadron to reinforce the CAP. Launch Blue Squadron to provide air support to our ground teams." Cain ordered. "Recall all reconnaissance Raptors throughout the system. Get some of them to take a look at it." Cain looked up at the DRADIS, the screen being constantly updated with information about the ship.

"That's almost as big as us," Belzen said next to her, looking at the same information she was. "They're moving towards the planet."

"Sir, Raptor four-two-five reports that the ship is comprised of a dorsal and ventral triangular shape connected by a central pier," the communications officer announced after only a few seconds.

"Cylons. It has to be," Cain reported. Even though it wasn't a straight Basestar as they knew it, it matched the typical characteristics of one. In the minute or two that had passed, Cain had compiled herself from the previous announcement from the field commander and was now firing on all cylinders. The CIC was a flurry of activity around her, everyone rushing to ready the ship for combat. They hadn't been expecting to go to Condition One and the crew was unprepared. "Put me through on all frequencies," Cain responded to the communications officer before picking up the handset again.

"You're transmitting," the communications officer replied.

"This is the Colonial Battlestar Pegasus to unidentified ship. We are protecting the inhabitants of the planet below. Cease your current course towards the planet below or we will be forced to open fire," Cain said to the ship. She put the handset down and continued to stare at the DRADIS screen. The ship was still moving towards the planet.

"There is a power build up in the ship," an officer called out from across the CIC. A few moments later "the ship has disappeared. Characteristics are typical of an FTL jump," the same voice said. Cain could feel most of the staff within the CIC take a collective sigh of relief, but Cain just looked at Belzen. The Cylon ship had either disappeared to get reinforcements, or they had managed to scare it off, for now.

"Put the ship to Condition Two. Blue squadron is to remain in CAP around the planet and provide support to the ground teams. Plot a set of emergency jump coordinates and transmit it to all Raptors in-system before the Cylons return," Cain ordered. There was no time to stick around here. They needed to get all the information they could from the people below on the planet and rescue as many of the Colonial personnel as possible.

"Prepare a Raptor to go down to the planet in fifteen minutes. I want an update on everything we've got about the planet when I'm getting on-board. Jurgen, you have the Con," she said to the CIC before turning and marching out. She was heading towards her room to change into field gear, and then she was going to get some answers.

**Raptor four-two-five – In transit from Battlestar Pegasus to Planet Delta. **

Three and a half million people lived on the planet below by their best estimates, and they had no idea what percentage of those were Colonials abducted during the Cylon War. If the proportion in the villages near the landing sites was true, there could be at least thirty-thousand Colonials on this planet, not counting their families and children that they had had since being abducted. That was too many people to transport in one Battlestar. They would have to come back with a rescue fleet for anyone who wanted to leave.

It was then that Cain had a brilliant idea. There was a Stargate on this world. They would be able to use it to transport the people to Earth. But as quickly as Cain had that idea, it was written off. No one in the fleet knew how to use the Stargate, especially dial Earth. The Pegasus would have to leave and go back to the Colonies before they could try any attempts to get the people off of the planet. Cain was worried that the Cylons would do something to the population in the absence of the Pegasus. Hell, there wasn't even any reason why the Pegasus would stop them. For all she knew, they were rallying their forces to attack the Pegasus and blow it out of the sky.

But there had to be some reason why they hadn't killed the population of this world and why they had dumped the Colonial POWs here. Cain just couldn't think of it.

Cain was escorted to a field command tent that had been set up in the hours since the landing party had arrived. Stepping into it, she could see several older men and women who had not had an easy life. Their skin was tough and rubbery and many of them had sores over them. They were all in a pair of BDUs that had been given to them, drinking water.

"Commander Cain. This is Amaguen. He is the eldest of the Colonial personnel in the nearby village Hadronte," the field commander said while introducing the same man that had approached the Environmental Analyst.

"It's an honour to meet you," Commander Cain said while shaking his hand with both of hers. She signalled for him to sit down, and Cain did likewise. There were other Colonial officers present, all of them ready to take notes and hear what Amaguen had to say. "From what I understand, you've all been here for thirty-two years?" Cain questioned.

"Yes. We were held in ships for a long time in dark cages. I don't know how long. Then the Cylons put us here," Amaguen explained. "I was twenty-three at the time, and one of the oldest of us that I know of. The rest were mostly children," he said in stunted Colonial Standard. Cain was guessing that it was not often that he used it.

"Have you seen the Cylons since?" Cain asked after a few moments of silence.

"Yes, yes. They used to come regularly. Come into the villages… Take people. Colonial and Subsquitrisen alike," he said. Cain had been briefed that the Subsquitrisen were the indigenous population of the planet. "Now, not so much. But they come and take our children, babies, and pregnant women. They look in our houses at our things, burn down our temples and religious places and anyone inside them. Not so bad really. Compared to before. We hide our children under the ground when they come."

Cain continued to question them for half an hour, learning that the Colonials in the immediate region were scattered throughout each of the villages. None of the Colonials in front of them knew of the situation on the whole planet, not being able to travel to far-away villages and cross seas. Cain already knew that there were Colonials in those villages as well, she had people questioning them there as well. She also found out that on several occasions, they had tried to fight-off the Cylons to no success. They also didn't know if any other of the Colonial abductees might have been put on other planets either – everyone they had been with for the journey here had been put with them on the planet. No one knew of any Lucy Cain.

Cain was about to wrap up the meeting and head back to Pegasus. She had to consider her words very carefully before proceeding.

"To cut through it. We are not a rescue mission," she stated, watching the look on the Colonial's faces. "We are an exploration mission. We are just one Battlestar, the rest of our fleet has turned and gone back to the Colonies a week ago. We can not rescue you off of this planet," she continued. "You are a long, long way from the Colonies. We have to turn back and head back towards the Colonies in two days," she said, as a distraught look began to come across each of their faces. "But we will be back, with more ships and we will be able to protect you. Those of you who wish to come home will be able to. You have my word… We will leave you with as many supplies as we can spare until we return," Cain said. She waited a few moments, looking into their faces. It looked as if they were going to protest, but then Cain could see the logistics of it sinking into their faces. Amaguen nodded in recognition and agreed to Cain's promise.

Cain left the tent and headed back to the Raptor to take her back to Pegasus. She knew in her gut that it was unlikely that the Admiralty would honour her promise of returning and protecting the planet from the Cylons, but she had her mental fingers crossed that they did. Director Tynall had indicated that her career could benefit from this mission becoming a success. She hoped that the benefit would allow her to pull some strings and put pressure on the decision makers to support her and the protection of this planet. After all there was still the possibility that Lucy may be here.

**Two Days Later – Planet Delta**

The Pegasus spun up its FTL drive and left the system. They had left several surveillance satellites in orbit of the planet. All of their surplus supplies had been distributed around the largest villages and towns on the surface. They had supplied those who were capable with weapons to fend-off the Cylons should they return in the intervening time between Pegasus's departure and a possible return fleet. It wasn't much, but it was something to slightly help to even the odds against the Cylons should they return.

**That Same Time - Cimmera**

SG1 and several Colonial Infantry teams stood in stunned silence as they watched a massive ship, shrouded in cloud, emit pure white rays of light and sweep the Goa'uld from the planet. Despite the Colonial reinforcements, they had been captured by Heru'ur's forces. It had been the Colonials first engagement with the Goa'uld, and they had been caught off-guard.

SG1 had just made real-time contact with the Asgard, an advanced race posing as Gods, protecting the world Cimmera. Jack watched as the Asgard mothership, as Teal'c called it, lifted up and disappeared from the atmosphere. He was relieved beyond belief that their asses had been pulled out of the fire, so to speak.

Part of him was wondering why this advanced race, the Asgard, who could wipe a planet clean of Goa'uld in a matter of minutes, did not do more against the Goa'uld across the galaxy. The other part of him already knew the answer. Much like the Nox, the Asgard did not see it as their role to intervene in the trivialities of 'younger races', and had only decided to protect this world as part of a much larger scheme. There was something about wisdom in there, but Jack didn't have the time or the mental ability to work it out.

What Jack O'Neill didn't know was that before the Asgard mothership began to beam the Goa'uld from the planet, it had taken a reading of the biological signature of every humanoid being on the planet. The ship had done this to confirm that the interference with their device was indeed because of people from Earth being present on the planet. The ship had also detected and recognised the presence of the Colonials who were with SG1. This caused the Asgard occupants on-board to alter their course back to their origin to go via three solar systems containing twelve habitable worlds.


	12. Chapter 12

**Authors Notes: **This episode takes place at the end of "2x08 Family" for Stargate SG1. In my story, the majority of this episode occurred as-is and is un-affected by the Colonials presence, but the ending will be drastically different. Hence, I am not going to repeat the entire episode in this story, just summarise it and show how the ending will be different.

This chapter was also meant to be a lot longer and deal with the ongoing story of the discoveries that the Pegasus and Zeus made last chapter. I haven't been able to finish that part tonight, so I have put that in the next chapter.

This chapter just demonstrates again, how Earth-Colonial Cooperation will can change the SG1 storyline.

Origins of Humanity

Chapter 12

**Earth – Stargate Command**

It had been a busy period for the SGC, even without the Colonials using their facility. They had managed to survive Cimmera just by the skin of their teeth, even with the assistance of the Colonials. The Asgard had sent a ship to the planet, and in a matter of moments, removed all of the Jaffa as well as the Goa'uld mothership landing platforms and Jaffa loyal to Her'ur. The sight had been extraordinary and Teal'c's first reaction was to run and hide. Fear of the Asgard had been instilled in him since he was a small boy. Even the Goa'uld System Lords prevented the mention of the Asgard throughout their society. Anyone caught talking of them would be punished severely. It was part of the monopoly that the System Lords had over the Jaffa. It had been a breathtaking sight to stand, knowing that Teal'c did not have to be afraid, as the Asgard caused Her'ur's forces to disappear in beams of white light across the planet. It seemed easy for the Asgard to remove Her'ur's forces from the planet, and Teal'c wondered why they did not intervene in the Goa'uld's dominance over the galaxy more. They had so much power and were revered throughout the galaxy. Even the presence of an Asgard mothership roaming the galaxy would be enough to deter all but the most insane of the System Lords.

Not long afterwards, the SGC had found an advanced device in ruins of a planet. They had brought the device back to the SGC where it had activated and extended large spikes into the surrounding concrete, one of which was through O'Neill's shoulder. It had turned out that an advanced civilisation had downloaded itself into the device upon their extinction. The SGC had moved the device to an uninhabited planet, whereby they allowed it to fulfil its purpose and allow the alien intelligence to spread and prosper.

The Colonials had been pouring a lot of resources into P7J-989, a civilisation that they had awoken to rescue SG1 from a field of stasis pods. This had resulted in frequent activations of Earth's stargate to P7J-989 and vice versa. The Colonials were helping the civilisation re-build, and were learning some advanced computer networking and human interface technology from the civilisation in return. They were solidifying their, and Earth's, relationship with the local population. It had worked out well for Earth, as the Colonials were giving them some of the computing technology that they were acquiring from the planet and its civilisation.

The SGC had also been advised by Bra'tac, Teal'c's mentor, that Apophis was very much alive and had taken Teal'c's son Rya'c as a hostage on Chulak. Despite O'Neill's injured shoulder from the previous mission, they had managed to rescue Rya'c but soon discovered that he had been brainwashed by Aphophis to release a biological weapon once he was at the surface of the SGC. If that was not enough, Teal'c's wife had married another man, albeit for protection whilst on Chulak. The two events had almost been the end of Teal'c. For the entire year that he had been away from his family, he justified it to himself that he was fighting to make the worlds ruled by the System Lords better for them and a myriad of other families. For his wife to disown him and marry another caused Teal'c to doubt the very cause of his reason for fighting against the Goa'uld.

His son's betrayal to the false God Apophis was a blow almost as crippling. The weapon that his son was meant to unleash was able to remove almost all life from Earth within a week. Teal'c had witnessed such ruthlessness dealt by Aphophis, had even been the one delivering the weapons as his First Prime, but he had never thought of it being done to the population of Earth. They were not a perfect people, filled with their own sins and shortcomings. But the majority of them were innocent. It was only one fraction of Earth's population that was striking out against the Goa'uld. Apophis only had to aim to destroy the SGC and Teal'c was confident that that act would cause the people of Earth to cease their venture into the stars.

The extent of Ryac's brainwashing was so severe that Teal'c had the unfortunate role of torturing his son via electrical shock therapy to by-pass the hypnotism that Apophis had over the boy. Teal'c knew that he must remove the power that Apophis had over the boy. Even after the hypnotism was removed from Ryac, Teal'c could still tell that he was not a believer in the fight against the false Gods.

It had been a gamble, but they decided to tell Ryac and Teal'c about the long-term plans of Earth and its allies, with the approval of Earth's biggest ally. It was clear to everyone that Ryac and Drey'auc could not stay on Earth, and they could not return to Chulak after Ryac's failure to Apophis. Teal'c could also tell that Ryac was still partially enthralled to the False Gods. If he could show him that there were people out there that had the power to oppose them, he was confident that Ryac would also take up the fight against the Goa'uld. They were confident that the Twelve Colonies would be able to accommodate them though, with such a diverse range of cultures. With the approval of the Twelve Colonies, the SGC had decided to tell Ryac and Drey'auc about Earth's long-term plans for the Goa'uld – extermination.

"The people of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol are a diverse culture with a warrior's spirit. Though they lack the gifts of technology that the false gods maintain, they have the means of fighting back against them," Teal'c said to them. Bra'tac was there as well, hearing about the Twelve Colonies for the first time. If Ryac and Drey'auc could even be convinced that re-settling in the Colonies was worth evaluating, they, along with Bra'tac would get a tour of the Colonies. Teal'c could see that his wife, Drey'auc was at least interested, but Ryac was not. "They tell me that they may have the ability to remove the symbiote from us," Teal'c added. "I am to go to the Colonies later this day to receive medical scans, so it can be determined if they can remove the symbiote." Teal'c was hoping that this would be enough to get Ryac and Drey'auc to at least visit the Colonies. It was also the first time that Bra'tac had heard about the possibilities that the Twelve Colonies could remove the symbiote.

"How is this possible? No one has been able to remove the symbiote without the host perishing," Bra'tac queried.

"Apparently when the Colonials arrived at their worlds, there was an organism much like a Goa'uld on one of the planets. It was not exactly like a Goa'uld symbiote. We believe it was an evolutionary divergence or dead-end. Over several generations, the inhabitants of that world were able to develop a means to remove the organism with no repercussions to the host," Carter explained.

"We are hoping that their methods may be able to work to remove the immature Goa'uld within the Jaffa," Teal'c added.

"If what you say is true, the Jaffa could be freed. We would no longer be slaves to the False Gods," Bra'tac stated. Teal'c just nodded. "I will accompany you to these Twelve Colonies. I must see this for myself," he added.

"They are free from the Goa'uld?" Drey'auc asked.

"Indeed," Teal'c replied. "You will be able to make a life there."

"Very well. We will journey to these Colonies and have a look for ourselves," Drey'auc replied, speaking for Ryac as well.

**Hours Later – Colonial Raptor One-Six-Seven-Zero – Orbit of Aerilon**

Teal'c could tell that the FTL jump had been disorientating to everyone in the Raptor, Teal'c included. The Colonial means of faster-than-light travel was violent to the uninitiated unfortunate enough to be exposed to it.

"What was that?" Ryac exclaimed.

"That was the Colonial's method of moving over large distances. The ship has been transported from one system into another that the Colonials inhabit," Teal'c explained.

"It is a most disorientating means of travel," Bra'tac said.

"You get used to it," the Raptor Pilot said. Teal'c had discretely asked if they could take a fly-by of one of the Colonials' battleships, in order to impress upon Ryac their size and prowress. What Teal'c would not mention is that the ships lacked shields and would likely be beaten by a Ha'tak class vessel. But what Ryac did not know, would not hurt him. Teal'c was after all trying to convince him that the False Gods were not all-powerful. They were now coming up to one of the Battlestar groups orbiting the world Aquaria.

"What is that?" Ryac asked as they drifted past the behemoth.

"It is a Colonial Battleship," Teal'c responded whilst glancing at Bra'tac. He seemed just as transfixed glancing out the front of the cockpit as Ryac did.

"This is the Galactica. One of the first of her kind built more than thirty years ago," the Raptor pilot elaborated. "She's quite old compared to the newer models." After they had flown by the Battlestar, they began to head towards an even larger structure in the distance. Teal'c stood stoic as Ryac glanced back in him. It was the first time that he had seen any sign of hope in Ryac's eyes in a long time.

As they got closer, Teal'c and everyone else in the Ratpor could see that the structure they were approaching was a massive, domed space station. The majority of the station was underneath the dome, with a skirt of steel infrastructure protruding around the base of the dome. There were several ships docked to the skirt of infrastructure around the outside of the dome.

"My God," Carter said. Teal'c immediately noticed both of the Raptor pilots tense up at Carter's statement. Apart from that, they did not show any other signs of discomfort. "What is that?" Carter asked.

"It is one of the orbital habitats surrounding Aquarion," the Raptor pilot responded.

"Since the majority of Aquarion is comprised of oceans, a large percentage of the population resides in these orbital habitats. They were originally designed to put on the sea-floor, but after we got a couple of them going, it was more economically feasible to construct them in orbit instead," the other Raptor pilot elaborated. They followed the docking procedure and were met by an escort of guards, lightly guarded, each carrying a sidearm. They were also met by several representatives of the Colonial Ministry of Defence who escorted them through the premises. They were mid-sentence, explaining that the orbitable habitats had some of the most advanced hospitals in the Colonies, one of which would handle Teal'c's case, when they emerged from the maze of corridors into a massive, open area with blue sky, trees and walkways. It caused everyone in the party who was not Colonial to stop dead in their tracks and gape in awe.

If Teal'c hadn't just gotten off of a craft, which he had seen with his own two eyes land on a space-station, he would have sworn that he was standing on a planet. The sky overhead was blue, with artificial sunlight generated by what Teal'c could only guess was an artificial sun. The sky only looked partially un-real once you had a closer look at it, but for everyday life it would hardly go un-noticed. Teal'c surmised that the sky occupied the entire dome which they had seen from outside the space station.

Multiple buildings of varying heights, some up to ten stories tall, were dispersed around the landscape in distinct clusters dispersed amongst trees and fields of mown grass. Teal'c even believed that he could see water ahead through a tick stand of pine-like tress, possibly indicating a lake or some kind of artificial river. People bustled all around them, parting around their escort of lightly armed servicemen. Teal'c and the rest of the party began to hear a faint humming coming towards them. It was coming from above them, and they all moved further away from the entrance to the hallway and looked above. There was a train-like vehicle, much like an Earth mono-rail, built into the wall of the structure. It was moving past at a comfortable speed, making its way around the circumference of the nature-like zone underneath the dome. Teal'c must have surmised that it was one of the main methods of transport around the station.

"How many people live here?" Carter asked.

"The limit is twenty-million per habitat." one of the Colonial Military representatives responded.

"How do you power it all?" Carter asked again.

"About sixty-percent of our energy is generated by a combination of sea-floor geo-thermal collectors and tidal power stations on Aquarion. Our shared-orbit with Canceron creates a twenty-metre tidal range on the planet below and ensures that the planet is geologically active. There's a lot of energy down there, you've just got to know how to tap into it. The power stations transmit energy up to us. Another twenty percent is generated by solar collectors scattered about the outside of the station. The remaining power generation comes from tylium reactors on-board," the same representative responded. There were a few more minutes silence as the Earth and Jaffa party took in their surroundings.

"Isn't it a lot of effort to build this to house only twenty million people?" Carter asked again.

"Yes it is. But the limited space, as well as the amenity, ensures only the rich or very lucky can afford to live here. In addition there's also a lot of tourism to these habitats from all of the Colonies which stimulates the local economy. They're tight to run, but in the long-term I think they generate income for the Colonial Government's purse".

"And what about food?" Carter asked again. Teal'c could tell that she was fascinated by the structure.

"We grow about twenty percent of our food on-station. Another ten percent comes from the surface. The rest is imported from Aerilon and Libron. We used to be much more self-sufficient, but after the war, most of the croplands on the surface have become contaminated or radioactive."

Carter and Teal'c just paused and looked at the representative. He must have picked up on the hint to explain further.

"If you haven't noticed, these habitats aren't the most secure of structures. During the war, five of our total of nine were destroyed. Three of those lost orbit and broke up once they hit the atmosphere. The event was called 'Skyfall'. Mid-way down they all exploded and spread radiation and contaminants across most of the landmass of Aerilon. There were about ten-million people on each of the habitats when they hit the atmosphere. It was the biggest loss we ever took during the war." There was dead silence following that statement for a few moments.

"You have our condolences. To lose that many innocent souls at once is devastating," Bra'tac said whilst putting his arm across his chest and forming a fist with his hand.

"You are a strong people to have survived such atrocity," Ryac stated as well. "You should call yourselves proud to possess such homes in the stars. Not even Apophis displays such magnificence in his constructions." Teal'c could tell that this facility had impressed Ryac deeply.

"If you think we're strong, you should meet a Tauron," Teal'c heard one of the other representatives say to Bra'tac.

"Anyway, as I was saying," another one of the Colonial Military Service representatives said before prompting the group to keep walking, "the Fluiaal Hospital here on Hab-2 is one of the best throughout the entire Colonies. They have a Military and Fleet wing used to rehabilitate severely injured and disabled personnel. This is where we'll get your scans done Teal'c." They all continued walking for a short distance before they were split up into three different small buggy-sized vehicles. These vehicles whisked them across the 'habitat' as the Colonials called it. During the trip, Carter correctly indicated to Teal'c that the resources and knowledge that had to go into making one of these facilities at this scale was absolutely huge. She had been confident, that without the FTL Drive, if Earth _really_ wanted to create a Battlestar, they could eventually do it with their current level of technology. It might take a while, and send many of the countries of the world broke, but they _could_ do it if they wanted. Carter indicated that they couldn't do this though, it was just too far ahead of the resource base and technology level that Earth currently possessed.

Once they arrived at the hospital, Teal'c was ushered through the halls with their escort into a room containing a device much like an MRI machine, but vertical. He had stepped into the machine with much trepidation, but after reassurance from the technical officers that he was at no risk, he agreed to do it.

After waiting a few hours while a team of specialists went over the scans, they finally got some news.

"It's remarkable. It seems much like a _shalkayre_ that was found on Canceron during Colonisation, but there's considerable difference. It's quite smaller, and has four hooks at its posterior rather than the two that a _shalkayre_ had. We'll need some live parasites as test subjects so we can characterise their biochemistry before we attempt to remove the one in your stomach," a specialist explained to them. "Would we be able to get some of the parasites not in a host body?" she asked, looking to the Colonial Military Representatives and then to Teal'c. Teal'c just nodded in response. They would have to acquire some from a Jaffa settlement, likely by force. Carter and Teal'c agreed with the specialist to discuss it with their superiors.

After leaving the hospital, Teal'c had managed to talk the Colonial Representatives into taking them to Tauron. He had met some of the Tauronese on his previous visit to the Colonies for a live-fire demonstration from a Battlestar. He was not sure whether it had been the personality traits, or the culture of the individual that he had met, but he seemed fierce and extremely strong. He reminded Teal'c of the Jaffa. After talking to the Colonial representative, it seemed like Ryac and even Bra'tac would understand the Tauron culture more than any other found throughout the Colonies. Teal'c was hoping that Ryac would see the Tauronese as worthy warriors and douse any doubts that Ryac was having about taking up the fight against the Goa'uld alongside his father. If Teal'c could prove that there were indeed worthy warriors associated with Earth, it would improve his chances considerably.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Notes**: Thanks for the reviews guys. As promised, here is the next chapter. However, this has been broken into two chapters because I probably wont finish the next part of it today, and there is a natural cliffhanger in this chapter. I also have a question for the readers, as I am undecided. More at the end of the chapter.

**Origins of Humanity**

**Chapter 13 – Part 1**

**Colonial Government Strategy Room – Offices of the Colonial President – Caprica**

President Adar had called a high-level meeting of the heads of the Colonial Military, Defence Services, Intelligence Agencies and relevant Government Departments that had been briefed about the Stargate and the discovery of Earth. The main driver of this meeting was the successful recovery of a Stargate by the Battlestar Zeus, and the findings of the Battlestar Pegasus. Now that they had a fully-functional Stargate in their hands, there had to be a coordinated, clear and very precise direction that guided operations of the Colonial Military with respects to all aspects of the Stargate and their surrounding neighbourhood.

Adar's main fear was that the military was going to use the acquisition of the Stargate to drastically increase their funding and begin to re-militarise their society. They had only just began to de-militarise when Adar was elected to office. It had been _the_ major point that had won him the election. He understood the viewpoint of the public. The majority of the population across the twelve worlds hadn't seen a live Cylon and did not see the need for an overly militaristic society. Hence, Adar had implemented a cap on military expenditure in the budget. The military's expenditure cap had been the event that allowed the Colonies to begin their economic recovery after the war, having dived into more and more debt in the reconstruction effort.

The discovery of the Stargate could undo all of that. With the right political manoeuvring, the military would be able to abolish the expenses cap and undo all of the economic progress that Adar had made during his term in office. Adar's main objective during this meeting was to let the military understand that they would have a much greater cap with the inclusion of Stargate operations, but there would still be a cap.

"Welcome all. Thankyou for coming on such short notice," Adar said into the microphone. The assembly of leaders sat around a very large circular table with Adar occupying the seat closest to the door. A large screen was located at opposite ends of the room to view images, presentations and video. "As most of you know, two Battlestars, the Zeus and Pegasus were sent on a deep-space mission five-thousand light-years core-ward of the Colonies to obtain an un-locked Stargate," Adar began, showing an image of the actual Stargate they picked up whilst in the Zeus' hangar bay. "The secondary objective was to passively detect any Cylon or other activity on the opposite side of the Armstice Line. I can confirm that both objectives have been successful, with the Zeus returning early last week, and the Pegasus returning two days ago," Adar explained. The majority of the assembly knew all of this already, but Adar was just setting the scene and making sure everyone was on the same level. "Director Tynall. Since this was your mission, could you please explain to the assembly the outcomes," Adar asked, looking four seats over to the Director. Director Tynall was the head of the Colonial Intelligence Division and had been the one who had hand-picked Adama and Cain for the recovery mission.

"Yes. Our primary objective was to recover the Stargate, which we have undertaken successfully. The Stargate is currently in an undisclosed facility until the Stargate Command Centre currently being constructed inside the asteroid Ceti-529 is ready to receive it. We have been notified that the Command Centre should be ready by next week to receive the Stargate and operations will be able to begin within three weeks," Tynall started. "There were large, two-storey high statues of the Lords of Kobol surrounding the Stargate, their purpose unknown," Tynall explained whilst flicking through images on the two screens. "They're made of an unknown material, and because of that we haven't been able to date the samples of the statues brought back… Our analysts currently have no idea what this means and we're seeking approval to bring in some academic expertise," he continued. "But that's not all. Once our fleet arrived at the planet containing the Stargate, it was noticed that the planet had previously been occupied," he said, bringing up a satellite image of a settlement on the planet. "Our landing party investigated several of these settlements and found what appear to be human remains. We're not sure if these humans were of Kobolian origin, or a separate human settlement which we have been advised by Earth are abundant throughout the galaxy," he continued while showing a series of photos of the ruined settlements and human skeletons. "We also found this," Tynall said while pointing towards the screen, flicking it over to show the mangled body of a Cylon Centurion amongst the rubble.

There were immediately gasps and whispers amongst all of those assembled. Some of them had been previously briefed on the findings of the mission, the majority had not.

"That's right. That is the body of a Cylon Centurion. It appears as if they destroyed the local population approximately thirty-years ago," Tynall continued. "There were also nuclear scars detected on some areas of the planet."

"Cylons! Out there!" someone proclaimed in surprise. Adar didn't catch who it was. Others exclaimed as well, but it was all lost in the crescendo of voices.

"There's more," Tynall said, not waiting before he continued. "The planet we recovered the Stargate from, further known as Planet Alpha, was one in a cluster of four containing Stargates within a thirty light-year radius. The mission commanders decided to vary from their mission parameters. The Zeus began its return voyage back to the Colonies, containing the primary objective. The Pegasus remained behind to recon the remaining planets in the clustered systems… Two of the other three planets were in the same condition – exterminated local populations of early agrarian human societies. A living population was discovered on the final planet…" Tynall paused for effect. "After interviewing the local population, it was discovered that up to thirty-thousand of them were Colonial children and teenagers abducted during the war and had been placed on the planet and inter-mingled with the local population," Tynall started. A crescendo of exclamations erupted, but Tynall talked over the top of them.

"Furthermore…. Furthermore…," he started, getting the attention of everyone in the room and bringing it back towards silence. "An unknown ship, believed to be a new-generation Cylon Basestar, jumped into the system whilst the Pegasus was in orbit. Upon hostile challenge, the Basestar jumped back out of the system… Locals indicated that the Cylons frequently conduct raids on multiple villages and steal their babies," Tynall said.

"What could they want with children?" someone asked, Adar didn't catch who it was. The reactions around the room were what Adar had expected. The majority of people were still trying to digest the Cylon presence. Others who were more adaptable or hid their shock behind a stoic mask were looking disgruntled and troubled by the news.

"I know what some of you are now thinking, and it's not good. The Cylons are 5,000 light years across the Armstice Line. Our analysts believe that they began to encircle us and encountered these occupied worlds. We don't know whether the Cylons are encircling us for an attack, to confine us to these systems, or to strip out the resources around us," Tynall continued.

"This is an act of war!" the Secretary of the Tauron Defence Services exclaimed.

"The treaty does not indicate how far the Armstice line extends," someone else replied. Adar could see the and understand the frustration on the Secretary's face. As Tauron was the closest planet to the armistice line, and heavily plagued with pirating and smuggling problems, it was the Secretary's job to ensure that there were no ships that even approached the Armstice Line, let alone crossed it.

"You mean that I've spent all these years risking my men to stop people approaching the Armstice Line in-case someone does and the Cylons declare war on us for nothing? As Tynall said, the Cylons are 5,000 light years across the border!" He exclaimed.

"We've got to allow for some flexibility. We can't go entering another war with the Cylons. We are still recovering from the last one," the head of Colonial Security stated. "We simply can't afford another war. Socially or economically."

"We don't even know why the Cylons are out there. They could have totally benign purposes. Jumping into the fire now, over an encounter 5,000 light years away is just putting the public at risk," The Colonial Fleet Commander stated.

"We can't show them any weakness! We must declare war because of this breach of the Armstice Treaty! We easily have enough Battlestars to handle anything they throw at us," The Secretary of the Tauron Defence Services exclaimed again.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," The Fleet Commander replied snidely. Adar was just watching the entire situation escalate. A few quick glances to Tynall revealed that he was doing the same thing, and looking to Adar for support. Adar picked up the hammer that he possessed to quiet the meeting, slamming it down on the desk multiple times. It wasn't working, everyone was too fired up about the Cylon incident.

"Quiet Please!" Adar exclaimed while standing, capturing everyone's attention and causing the noise level in the room to quickly dull. "You all know that I believe that the time for our military escalation after the war is coming to an end and we must focus on other things," Adar started. He heard a few scoffs from around the room. He knew all too well that a lot of the military officers throughout the entire fleet, including their Directors and Commanders who were sitting in this room, thought very little of him because of his stance on this issue. But he didn't let that get to him, until this Stargate and Earth fiasco, Adar had a very clear direction and idea with what he wanted to achieve during his time in office. He had shared that with the public, and they had elected him in a landslide victory over his seven other opponents. "The fact is that we do not know what is out there, past our borders. We have recently learned that the entire galaxy is full of life and that there are bigger threats out there. We do not know the size, location or whereabouts of Cylon forces and therefore any premature acts or declarations by us may lead to our own detriment," he started. He could read the faces of those around the room. They were all waiting for him to reign in any military action that might be perceived as an escalation to the Cylons. It was Adar's typical stance in these situations. He knew it, and he knew that they knew it as well. What they didn't know was that Adar was about to throw a spanner into the works.

"What Director Tynall does not know is that I talked directly with the mission commanders after their return and got their first-hand opinions on what they had found out there. Commander Adama's words hit me in the heart and have forced me to have a very long and hard think about where we are to go from here," Adar continued. It was an unexpected direction that Adar was going to take, and he could sense that a few in the room were grappling to keep up. "He said to me… 'You can't play God and then wipe your hands of your creation' and he impressed upon me that the Cylons are _our_ responsibility. We created them, and then let them loose on the wider galaxy… Look at the result! At least three dead worlds and another one almost in slavery!" Adar was getting fired up now. The words that Commander Adama had impressed upon him had changed something inside him, something that he was still coming to terms with. "Commander Cain made a commitment to the Colonial prisoners on that world. What is it called again?" Adar asked Tynall.

"We're calling it Planet Delta for the moment sir," Tynall responded.

"Planet Delta. Thirty-thousand Colonial citizens and their descendants are living on Planet Delta under the tyranny of the Cylons! They may not have lived in the Colonies for very long, nor live under the Articles of Colonisation, but they were born here, and that makes it our imperative to protect them," Adar continued. He now had the full attention of all people in the room. Silence emanated throughout the room for a few moments.

"It would be extremely difficult and expensive to set up a supply chain to this planet. Let alone stationing a force there that could hold the planet against a Cylon attack. The Fleet personnel would need to be rotated regularly as well," The Fleet Commander outlined. Adar had been thinking on this fact, and he had a work-around.

"Would it be as difficult if we had an instantaneous connection to Planet Delta that we could send personnel and supplies through?" Adar queried. He watched the Fleet Commander's face as it went from bewilderment, to understanding, to realisation. They would have to send an initial fleet to the planet with enough supplies to be self-sustainable until the Colonial's Stargate Operations could be set up. Then they would be able to send through supplies and personnel via the Stargate. They'd even be able to rotate the ships' crews via the Stargate as well.

"No it would not. And we would only have to send a fleet big enough to let the Cylons know that we'd escalate if the fleet was attacked. Three battlestars should be enough," the Fleet Commander replied. There were a few moments pause as everyone was thinking over the proposed strategy in front of them.

"Couldn't we send more ships, and use the excess to scout surrounding systems for a Cylon presence, whether current or historical?" Director Tynall asked to the room.

"Yes, we could then get a picture of what exactly the Cylons have been up to," The Fleet Commander responded. "Use raptor patrols based out of a battlestar group or two deployed from Planet Delta, using it as a re-supply base. They'd be able to cover a lot of space, relatively quickly."

"In Commander Cain's judgement, the other mission commander for the last mission, she left the Stargates to Planet Beta, Charlie and Delta exactly where they were. Any Colonial forces protecting Planet Delta will also be able to use the Stargates to gather resources from these planets as well," Tynall stated.

"Before we all get ahead of ourselves, the issue of course, is cubits and funding. It will still be an expensive operation. We'd also need a very good cover story," the Director for Colonial Defence said, posing the statement towards Adar.

"We'll get the money from somewhere," Adar responded.

"The same place you're getting money from for this Stargate Command Post?" the Fleet Commander jested, even though from what Adar could tell he was on-side for this operation now.

"Just leave the funding to me. I'll get it from somewhere," Adar replied. They continued to discuss the possibilities around deploying a more or less permanent force to Planet Delta for the next few hours before starting to move onto the logistics of the Stargate Command Centre which was now being commissioned. The Centre was to be the focus of all Stargate travel. They were actually hollowing out a very large asteroid called Ceti-529 for the job. The asteroid was from an asteroid belt fringing the orbit of Tauron and had been towed to a geosynchronous orbit of Ragnar for construction purposes. Fleet engineers were confident that in an emergency situation, they'd be able to jump the asteroid using a series of synchronised FTL drives that were to be built into it once the SGC was completed. This mobility, as well as the natural defence of the facility from attack by the bulk of the rock-mass, had been the two deciding factors that had resulted in the decision being made to install the SGC into the centre of an asteroid. After reviewing some of the mission logs of Earth's Stargate teams, this mobility was paramount if they needed to isolate the Stargate from anywhere near the general populace.

The main issue that arose was that they only had one Stargate and three star systems housing the Colonial worlds. Exactly which system the SGC would be housed in was up for debate. It was still an open issue when Adar called an end to the day's discussions, calling for them to re-convene first thing the next morning.

Adar ended up mulling over the day's events over the evening and well into the night. He had made a lot of commitments that he was not meant to. . A lot of his advisers had been in the room today, but he didn't really consult them, rather he told them what was going to happen. A good President is not meant to take any actions unless he has consulted the majority of his advisers. After all, he wasn't an expert in everything. On the other hand he had been doing his job for a while now and knew what he was doing. So he was fairly confident that he had made the right decisions.

Finding where to get the money from was troubling Adar and keeping him awake well into the night. He was worried that he had made too many commitments, and when it actually came time to fulfilling those commitments, he wouldn't be able to do it. Something would have to be sacrificed. The teachers were almost on the verge of rioting given the lack of support they had received, just because funds were stretched too tight. As a result, he couldn't take any more money away from education. Health was in a similar debacle, ruling that out as well. He'd already cut his fair share of big-budget military projects. There was no more left to cut there. It was made extraordinarily difficult by the fact that both the Planet Delta expedition as well as the Stargate Command were so secret, the money would just disappear from the budget. That would cause questions to be asked, so he had to find and funnel the money discretely.

Finally Adar had began to drift off to sleep, his mind settling. He was confident that the Planet Delta expedition as well as the Stargate Command Facility would go ahead, but he just didn't know how he'd do it yet. Once he was comfortable with that fact, his body and mind started to shut down and he crawled into bed next to his wife. Just as his mind was hanging on the precipice of sleep, just about to drift over, and his body was comfortable and just about to do its last spasm, an idea raced through Adar's mind so powerful and clear that Adar could have sworn that someone else had just put it there. The idea jolted him awake with adrenalin and kept him up for the rest of the night.

"_What if they weren't a secret."_

**Question to the Readers (see Authors Notes at Start of Chapter)**: Waaaay later on in this story there will be technology that is developed (by the Colonials or Earth) and/or already exists (Cylons) to interfere with thoughts, the mind, and consciousness and meld that ability with technology. The tech already exists in the BSG verse as evidenced by the Cylons having the ability to a) download b) share their thoughts and consciousness with the consensus and c) use the data-stream in baseships, have the hybrid function as the ship's computer etc.

My question to the readers is **Do you think it is a good idea to mesh in the technology and mythos (and maybe a character or two eventually) from **_**Dollhouse**_** into this story, or do you think I should keep it a simple 2 story crossover**. For example, during the time this technology is coming to light in the greater universe, have the SGC find out that the Rossum Coroporation is on-par with other galactic players and have them try leverage them for the tech… or something to that extent.

I am trying to maintain a 'natural' feel to this story, and I believe I can do the above quite naturally. But I also believe I can quite naturally meld in the _Buffy, Angel_, _Fringe_ and _Stargate Universe_ mythos into this story as well, but I'm holding back from doing so because I don't want it to be a 'multi-crossover story' that gets too bogged down in its own mythos. I am asking the question because if it is to be so, I must start structuring everything for it to begin to happen in the next 10 chapters or so. Any feedback on this issue would be greatly appreciated.


	14. Chapter 14

**Authors Notes: **Thanks for all the reviews! I have decided to leave this primarily as a nBSG x SG1 story. I might just drop a name or two, and use some _ideas'_ from Dollhouse later in the story, but it will not be of any significance to the overall plot and will not involve the addition of a new 'universe'. The intention will be that people who know the Dollhouse universe will see the direction that I _could_ have taken it (and which may result in a short AU Origins of Humanity story where I _actually_ go that way), but OoH will stick to the main crossovers.

There are more author's notes below the chapter

Origins Of Humanity

Chapter 14

**Colonial Government Strategy Room – Offices of the Colonial President – Caprica**

The sun hadn't even began to come up yet when Aerisis received a call requiring him to be at the offices of the President as soon as possible. He had quickly dressed and raced down the motorway but it wasn't quick enough to prevent him from walking into the meeting halfway through. At that stage he knew that it was going to be an important meeting, as he had a track record of walking into only important meetings half way through. He took a seat along the wall beside a number of other aides and analysts who were busy jotting down notes. The major players were all sitting around the famous 'Government Round Table' that had been built once the unification treaty had been ratified by each Colony and sub-nation state during the Cylon War. It was to represent the equality of every Colonial citizen who sat at it and that, if invited, the words of a Caprican citizen would bear the same weight as those of a Gemenese citizen, which would bear the same weight as the President of the Colonies and so on and so forth.

Aerisis could see his immediate boss, the Regional Director of the Colonial Intelligence Division, Joshua Blake, sitting in the round-table already alongside the Colonial Director. As he cast his eyes around the room there were many of the highest ranking officials present – Director Tynall, head of the Colonial Fleet and also co-chair of the Colonial Intelligence Division. There were several Fleet Admirals present, representatives from the Economic Development department, and many more. High-level meeting indeed.

Aerisis had been briefed via his early-morning phone call that he was to attend and offer any advice that he sought fit to the discussion. He wasn't briefed on what the topic of the discussion was, but he was notified that it was its second day and that it had been reconvened early on the request of the President. After Aerisis had worked out the players present in the room and roughly who was who, he decided to actually pay attention to what was being said.

"… cubits generated by the mining and exploration activities would be enough to pay for the escorts needed. It would essentially pay for itself and bring another revenue stream to the Fleet," Tynall was saying.

"But we couldn't have everyone just jumping away from the core systems when they felt like it. The resources sector would be crying out to get access to the Stargate as well as the surrounding space," the secretary for Colonial Defence stated. "We wouldn't be able to keep track of them."

"We'd have to expand the current permit system for leaving the core systems," said the head of Colonial Law Enforcement. "We would need considerable assistance from the Fleet to police the system though."

"You already get assistance from us. The majority of our Battlestars are running patrols for you now," Director Tynall responded rather harshly. Aerisis heard and saw Adar begin to bang the hammer on the table to reign in the escalating tension in the room.

"We're getting off-topic here. Back to the issue of expanding the fleet without bankrupting the Colonial Treasury. We all believe that the major source of income would be from greatly expanding our current mining operations beyond the current red-line," Adar stated. There were a series of nods from around the room. "Now about public disclosure of the actual Stargate itself. What are the ramifications?" Adar started.

Aerisis had to second-guess what he had just heard. Had Adar just said 'disclosure of the Stargate'. He had thought that the conversation was about expanding the current mining fleet beyond the red line and possibly beginning mining operations on other planets using the Stargate. But public disclosure? What were they thinking, the public wasn't ready for that.

"I think that there is a rather looming issue that everyone has overlooked. Yes, sure, disclosure of the Stargate and the presence of other life in the galaxy is likely to stimulate the Colonial Economy. But what do the public get out of the Stargate Program and the expansion of the Colonial Military? The public will be interested in knowing how their own lives will be affected by this Stargate program," The minister for Immigration said. The room fell into utter silence as everyone contemplated his question. "I'm guessing that it isn't going to change that much. And for the added risk of enslavement or destruction by foreign powers, I am willing to bet that the Colonial public will not find the Stargate program an acceptable risk to Colonial Society," the Emigration Minister added, driving his point into those present that disclosure may not actually be accepted by the public. The discussions that they had been having so far had gotten carried away, assuming that the public would accept the Stargate and then get behind the expansion of the Colonial Fleet. It felt as if a minute had gone by before anyone spoke. In a room of thirty to forty people at 0500, a minute of silence is a long time.

"We really have three options here," Director Tynall said. "We can continue on with our current plans, keeping the Stargate and the Cylon presence behind us secret. But they are both out there and we will be pretending that they do not exist. Like it or not, we aren't ignorant to these facts anymore. We can disclose one or the other, but if we disclose the presence of the Cylons and Planet Delta, questions will be asked that will lead to the Stargate or Earth. Or we can acknowledge the presence of multiple threats to our way of life in the universe and begin to prepare to defend ourselves, against the Cylon, the Goa'uld or any other foreign power that threatens us," the Director elaborated.

"But even using the Stargate is increasing the chances that the Goa'uld will discover us and come to destroy us. They would probably come after us with much more force than they attacked Earth with," the Minister for Immigration replied. Aerisis could see both points, even though Director Tynall was half side-stepping the issue.

"Earth fumbled its way through the Stargate and killed the most powerful of the Goa'uld on their first mission, and then effectively stole the 2IC of the next most powerful Goa'uld on their second mission. Of course the Goa'uld would retaliate. It was just sheer luck that Earth managed to avoid the onslaught that it did," Director Tynall replied. "We won't be as unfortunate."

"But wouldn't you agree Director, after reading some of Earth's logs, that they did the best that they could. The decisions made in the field were better than many other possibilities and show the experience of their operatives?" the Immigration Minister queried.

"Yes, they were," Director Tynall replied.

"So how would we avoid making those same mistakes and, in your words, fumbling our way through the Stargate network and unwittingly making enemies, such as Earth?"

"We've been training our teams alongside Earth, learning from their mistakes. Our first missions will be by operatives that are seasoned and trained for these kinds of scenarios."

"But in Earth's case, and even a lot of our missions through Earth's Stargate so far, haven't we stumbled because the situation was so different than what our teams were trained for? What was that planet, P7J-989? We blew up the food manufacturing capabilities for an entire city of people who were in induced comas and then had to wake them up. That sounds like a damn big fumble to me," the Immigration Minister elucidated.

"And we fixed it. We actually helped the locals because they were in stasis for far too long, being kept there by a rouge AI," Director Tynall responded.

"That was only by luck though. We managed to 'fix' one of our mistakes. Just like Earth managed to do by stopping the Goa'uld attack ships? Fixing the problem after they made it in the first place? Isn't this fumbling?" he queried, expressing the last part as a rhetorical question. "So how could. No how _could_ we prevent these kinds of things from happening again? We couldn't, and therefore, we can not guarantee the public any safety from continuing this Stargate Program. They'll know that, if we go public and it will be chaos. People will go to extraordinary lengths to ensure that their government aren't inviting more enemies to us that could wipe them out from orbit." There was silence after that statement. No one else in the room was game to enter into the conversation. Everyone in the room, the majority of the big decision makers at the heads of various aspects of the Colonial Government did not have a solution. Aerisis could even see a lot of them nodding their heads in agreement. Suddenly, the idea of public disclosure of the Stargate did not seem like the good idea it had before.

Aerisis was not like the others though. He could clearly see a way to minimise the amount of 'stumbling' they did through the Stargate. He believed that most others in the room would be able to see the same solution, especially his direct boss Joshua Blake, but he couldn't believe that no one was saying anything about it. The solution was so simple. An internal debate was raging in his head on whether to get up and tell the room what he was thinking or not. Eventually, he just pushed his internal conflict down and stood up in his seat.

"I think I know a way to maximise our success through the Stargate and excel where Earth has failed," he called out to the room. Every set of eyes turned and looked at him, standing up from his seat along the wall of the room. He wasn't even part of the main discussion, just there to observe at the behest of Director Tynall

"And who might you be?" The Immigration Minister asked.

"I am Aerisis Bengin. I was the first to step through the Stargate when we made contact with the team from Earth," he replied.

"Very well. Go on," President Adar indicated.

"The problem with Earth's Stargate facility is that it is run by the military. The teams they send through are multi-disciplinary, but they are often lead by someone with a combat background who are reporting to their superiors, also with a similar background," Aerisis started. He was a little nervous addressing the crowd of prominent listeners, but he just pretended that there was no one else in the room and it allowed him to continue with no setbacks. "Their Stargate Team leaders are primarily trained to respond in combat situations. Earth also does very little reconnaissance. They send through a probe to check if the livability conditions on the planet are suitable and then send through a team straight away after that," he stated, knowing that it was mostly true. "Think of the differences if our Stargate Program, at least initially, was run by the Intelligence Division with the strict purpose of obtaining information on as many worlds as we could through the Stargate Program…" Aerisis started to explain. He hadn't really thought of it any further than that point, but he kept going, making it up on the spot. "The teams we deploy would consist of people whose main purpose throughout their careers has been to blend in, stay hidden, and collect information. If we devote the majority of our effort towards this task, we could learn quickly which worlds are safe to journey to and which aren't. If we collect intelligence on worlds throughout the galaxy before sending in teams to make contact with the locals, we'd know infinitely more than Earth knows now. We would know how the Stargates are used by individual planets, and which ones have a Goa'uld influence. This could be done fairly easily, buy just sending through teams to set up covert cameras near the Stargate and any settlements we find. We could just dial the Stargate every week or so and download the footage. We'd get vital information like who uses the Stargate, what kinds of activities occur nearby. We could do so with primitive populations we discover as well, find out if they have contact with any Goa'uld or other advanced races…" he trailed off, out of thoughts.

To Aerisis' horror there was also dead silence after what he had said. He could feel the eyes of everyone in the room burning into him, and he was sure that what he had suggested must have been stupid to those around him.

"Once we have information about any planets with technology that we'd like to acquire, we'd then know how to best approach them to obtain that technology. What we believe could be the best to trade, or if we could offer anything else to them," Admiral Kellis, head of the largest Colonial Battlegroup stated.

"Obviously we couldn't use this on advanced worlds that could detect our cameras," Joshua Blake, Aerisis' direct supervisor stated.

"If we sent through probes like Earth's MALP to a variety of worlds and just got them to record a week's activity, we could then perform risk assessments on which worlds are safe to visit for further intelligence gathering or to make contact, or avoid. We could the conditions around a magnitude of Stargates and then act on the safe ones. We could also learn about quite a few worlds that have a Goa'uld or Jaffa presence this way as well," Director Tynall added.

"The Stargate facility itself would have to be run by the Colonial Defence Forces to repel any incursions or hostile activity through the gate, but having missions run by the Intelligence Division could work," The Secretary of Defence stated as well. Aerisis could feel the tension leave his body as more and more people began discussing his idea. He wasn't an idiot after all.

Hours passed as they all discussed the logistics of the Stargate Program. They were a little closer to making a decision to go public with it or not, but the decision was not final. Adar had called for the final decision to be made by the Quorum, who still hadn't been briefed about the Stargate Program, in a closed session of the Quorum of Twelve with advice and briefings from all relevant department heads. That was to happen in a week from today. However it was decided that if the decision was made to go public, it would be up to Aerisis to assemble a team and tell Earth of the Colonial's decision to go public. In the meantime he was tasked with telling Earth about the Colonial's acquisition of their own gate. Whilst they hadn't done it behind Earth's back, they hadn't disclosed it to them either.

**Three Days Later – Earth – Stargate Command**

Samantha Cater, along with SG1, General Hammond and Paul Davis, were sitting across from Aerisis, Lieutenant Batiatus and a number of Colonial delegates. They had just told them that the Colonials had obtained their own Stargate and were set to begin using it within the next week. Also a bit more chilling was the discovery of their enemy, the Cylons, behind the Armstice line and the discovery of a planet of translocated Colonial prisoners, many of which had been children. The Colonials planned on setting up a permanent presence on the planet, so far named Planet Delta, which they mentioned that Earth could also use as an addition to the Alpha site. It was a lucrative offer.

"So what does this mean for us?" Jack O'Neill asked him.

"We will be conducting our own exploration of the Stargate network. As expected, we will be scaling back our operations here. We expect to maintain a presence here though, if it is suitable with you, to provide support as we have been doing for Earth-run SGC missions," Aerisis replied.

"You will also have an alternate dial-in gate for Earth off-world teams, if your gate is indisposed," Lieutenant Batiatus, one of the Colonial SGC team leaders replied.

"Fair enough," Jack replied. "Our gate has been a little over-used recently."

"The first months of our Stargate program will involve the deployment of probes to dozens, if not hundreds of worlds. They will record information and video footage which we will download weekly. After this initial scouting operation has been completed, we will then begin to send through teams of specially trained Intelligence Officers and guards to collect further intelligence operations or make contact," Carter heard Aerisis explain. She mulled it over in her mind for a while. It was an extremely smart move, to passively collect information on the status of a variety of planets before officially making any attempts at contact or deploying people on-the-ground.

"We will share this intelligence with you. As a way of saying 'thanks' for letting us use your Stargate program," Lieutenant Batiatus also added.

"Your information gathering operation is a very wise strategy. We have a saying on Chulak, 'a wise man will know the people around him better than they know themselves'," Teal'c added.

"Yes, we have the benefit of hindsight. Hindsight of your operations, thanks to the records you provided us," Aerisis stated. "As a measure of thanks, we will be providing you with approximately two-hundred thousand litres of processed high-grade tylium fuel for your own uses," Aerisis stated. Carter almost fell out of her seat. The reprocussions of that act could kick-start Earth's expansion into the Sol System.

"Carter?" Jack asked, obviously seeing the stunned expression on her face.

"It's their fuel sir. That would be huge for us. The current space shuttles we use require multiple engines with their own fuel to reach orbit, as we've all seen. Once the shuttle is in orbit and done some slight manoeuvring, it's essentially out of fuel and has to glide back to the surface. We've been building a new shuttle in consultation with the Colonial technicians they sent over here that would be able to reach orbit itself. But its based on our own fuel sources. Tylium is much more efficient that our own fuel. If we converted the engines, the shuttle would be able to reach orbit, fly to the moon in half a day, return and probably still have about a quarter of a tank left," Carter elaborated. She could see Aerisis nodding as she spoke. This said to her that that was the Colonial Government's intention – to aid Earth in reaching the stars via ships.

"We hope with that volume of tylium, you will be able to construct a light exploration vehicle to scout your asteroid belt for further tylium, and also begin constructing vessels capable of extracting that tylium," Aerisis replied. "At that time, a few months from now, a Colonial fleet will arrive in-system and begin mining identified tylium reserves. Apart from the tylium needed to run the fleet, all other reserves will also be given to you for your own use."

"I can't say enough, how gracious we are for your assistance. I can't help but ask, why you're providing us with this assistance and why you want us to head in this direction. I'm sure that we could use the tylium to deploy defensive satellites around Earth, or to create a vessel for our defence," General Hammond asked.

"I'm sure that we've got a close enough relationship to ask what you get out of this arrangement?" Jack asked. Carter just saw Aerisis smile again, as if he'd already anticipated all of these reactions.

"The Cylons found Planet Delta over thirty-years ago, just a few years after the end of the Cylon war. They've got a thirty-year head start on us exploring the systems surrounding the Colonies. You yourself have said that Earth, and by extension, the Colonies, are the most heavily industrialised worlds you have encountered so far throughout the galaxy. Obviously, to a race that we believe wants to exterminate mankind, Earth would be a prize worth having. We do not know how far out the Cylons have explored, but some believe that they have found Earth and are preparing for a joint attack against Earth and the Colonies," Aerisis explained. "As the President has said, what happened with Planet Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and probably a lot more others is our responsibility. Since we created them, it's our job to protect worlds that may be threatened by them. Now obviously we do not have the resources to do so for all worlds out there within jumping distance, so we need you to be able to protect yourselves."

It was a scary thought to Carter to think that an enemy that they hadn't even met yet could threaten the existence of everyone on the planet. It was ridiculous to believe that the Cylons would want to attack Earth though. Earth was not the Colonies and had not committed the same acts against them. But then again, who was Carter to judge. She'd never met or seen a Cylon, and the supposed experts believe that they perceived some threat to Earth.

"Your fleet that you will send here. It's not just for mining tylium is it?" Daniel Jackson asked.

"No. It's not for protection either," he said. "It will initially be a larger fleet whose primary objective will be to scout the corridor between Earth and the Colonies for any evidence of Cylon activity. Once it arrives here, the fleet will scout surrounding systems also. Once this has been accomplished, the majority of the fleet will return to the Colonies, leaving a small contingent here. That fleet's primary purpose will be to assist Earth with infrastructure development until you can become self-sufficient. The fleet will likely consist of a mining and refining ship, tylium tankers, a mobile space-dock for construction of infrastructure, a mobile habitat and two Battlestars. All of which can be directed by Earth personnel and operated covertly in the system to avoid detection by other governments, professional and amateur astronomers," Aerisis explained. "All of which is subject to approval by your President and any others that are necessary," he added.

"Why is the fleet coming in a few months? If you're that concerned with the Cylons, why isn't the fleet on its way now?" Paul Davis asked.

"We are currently sending a reasonably sized fleet to Planet Delta to establish a permanent presence and scout the surrounding space. If we send another fleet now, there will be too many ships doing 'off the book' missions and someone will notice and start asking questions. So when the Delta Fleet returns, they'll be serviced, the crews allowed some R&R, and then sent out here," Lieutenant Batista replied.

Carter's head began to swim the implications and the possibilities. This WAS the big break that they'd been looking for. Carter's mind didn't even know where to start with designing what they needed for this to work. It was a sure thing, she was going to be extremely busy over the coming months.

**Author's Notes 2: **

Remember in this story the layout of the galaxy is different than occurs in nBSG. The Colonies are spread over three solar systems that are close together, and Earth will not be "one million light years away". It will be more like 100,000 light years away (haven't decided yet) – still far, but not impossible to allow Colonial space traffic back and forwards.

I know that a lot of the previous chapters, including this one, have been 'info dumps via speech' and not a lot of action has occurred. The next chapter (which is going to be _huge_ in length) will be _all_ action and it's going to surround big events that happen too.

I've included a short teaser for the next chapter below:

_**Two Weeks Later - Director Tynall's Office – Colonial Defence Department**_

_Director Tynall had experienced much better weeks than this. They had undergone epic failures on major fronts of Colonial Fleet expansion and exploration of the Stargate. The first world that the Colonial Stargate Program had dialled has been a disaster almost resulting in the eventual destruction of the entire Caprica-Tauron-Aerilon system. It had only been the use of the second, locked, Stargate to contact Earth that had saved them. The news that had been reported back from the second fleet to reach Planet Delta was almost the worst that they could have heard. And now there was this, the apparent destruction of P7J-989, including a sizeable Colonial contingent helping the locals to re-establish their civilisation after years in stasis. He did not know how the week could get any worse. _


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Notes**: Hi guys. Long time, no update. Principally because work & an extra year of Uni that I've gone back to do have removed all the free time I had. But the uni is over now, so I can go back to this. In the previous chapter's teaser for this chapter, I dropped a number of hints towards the direction of this chapter – because of length and topic reasons, I have now broken that up into 3 distinct chapters. Here is the first of 3 (the other 2 of which are mostly written).

**Origins of Humanity**

**Chapter 15**

**PJX-592**

PJX-592 was devoid of birdlife and insects. Ecosystem functions that often relied upon these creatures, such as for flower pollination and seed dispersal, were non existent on this planet. The forests were very uniform and plain, often dominated by coniferous trees and a thin ground cover of grass. The ambient sound at night was almost outside of the range that could be measured by modern equipment. To the untrained ear, the world plunged into silence come nightfall. That was why the activation of the planet's Stargate rang throughout the night, disrupting the eerily silent forest.

After the cheverons were locked in, creating a deafening racket throughout the area, the Stargate erupted into life, spewing out blue energy which collapsed back in on itself with a soundable ka-woosh. Quickly, ten figures cladded in black came through the Stargate with their weapons drawn. Night vision goggles covered their eyes, enhancing visible light spectrums to levels strong enough that the users were able to easily see in the dark of the night.

As quickly as the Stargate had erupted to life, it deactivated and the ten people who had come through were left in their dark, silent surroundings. Only a slight wind rustling through the tops of the trees was keeping them company. However once they had emerged from the Stargate they could instantly tell that the world was occupied. Even without their night-vision goggles they would have been able to see a distinct golden glow on the horizon. They knew that it was not the signs of the sunrise or remnants of the sunset, but a large Jaffa settlement ruled by Her'ur. Her'ur's overconfidence allowed them to slip onto the world through an unguarded Stargate. PJX-592 was deep within his territory and the entire planet itself was heavily fortified against attacks from other Goa'uld. No one would dare to attack the planet through the Stargate for the fear of being obliterated from one of the many Ha'tak ships from orbit. It was this factor that allowed the team to enter the world with deadly purpose.

They would have been next to silent on their respective worlds, but with some noise they fanned out and moved out of the clearing around the Stargate and into the forest. They were heading towards the settlement that they could see on the horizon. The team was comprised of Colonel Jack O'Neill and Teal'c of SG1, three members of SG4 and five Colonial special operations infantry troops. They were all carrying silenced P-90's as well as a Colonial Standard Rifle. If they needed to they could use the P-90s for silent engagements with the enemy. If it all went pear-shaped they'd switch to the Colonial Rifles which were designed to take down Cylon Centurions, easily capable of piercing the armour of the standard Jaffa battlesuit. Hopefully they would be able to complete the entire mission undetected: their primary goal to steal as many Goa'uld symbiotes as possible to allow Colonial Researchers to develop a way to remove the parasites from the Jaffa.

**Battlestar Pegasus**

As soon as Cain entered the CIC she ordered the fleet to jump to their next jump point. It was the final jump that would bring them back into orbit of Planet Delta where they would then begin humanitarian operations with the local population and begin setting up the first Colonial base outside the Cyrannus cluster. Cain had accepted the mission in the hopes of being able to try and find if anyone on the planet knew of Lucy Cain, her sister taken during the second Cylon war. The odds were highly unlikely that she'd find anyone, let alone Lucy herself but there was a part of Helena Cain that still knew that the unlikely happened every day and hoped for her sister's survival. If not she'd be substantially contributing to the hunt for the Cylons as that was the fleet's secondary purpose. She had been placed in the position of mission commander and had accepted a promotion from Director Tynall and Admiral Musgrove, the current commander of the Colonial Fleet.

"All ships report ready to jump Admiral," her communications officer said to her.

"Very well, begin countdown," Cain responded. In ten seconds the entire ship was ripped through space to a point approximately 15 light years away, in orbit of Planet Delta. Cain opened her eyes after the jump flash faded and began issuing orders.

"All ships of the fleet accounted for," the DRADIS officer said, "sratch that. We've got a small DRADIS contact at extreme range. It's no bigger than a Viper." It could have just been an asteroid that had drifted into the area as there wasn't meant to be anyone else here. "The DRADIS contact has just disappeared," the officer called out only a few seconds later.

"Order a full diagnostic on the DRADIS array. We don't want any ghosts out here," Cain responded. She knew that there was every possibility that it had been a DRADIS ghost, but it could have been the Cylons or anything else as well. Afterall this was the place that they had seen what they'd thought was a Cylon baseship on their first mission. It would make sense that they would leave something self-destructible here to notify them if the Colonials came back. From what she'd learned In the last few months, it could have been something alien as well. Cain checked with the communications officer and the object hadn't transmitted anything that they were able to detect. It did little to remove a slight tension that Cain could feel in her stomach of there being something wrong with the situation.

Regardless, she ordered the first ground-teams to launch. They would go down to the settlements they had contacted on their first trip out here and begin preparations for supplies and personnel to be transferred planet-side. They would also try to use the Stargate to dial Earth and establish communications. Cain had been advised that the Colonial Stargate Command Centre would become operational a week after they arrived here at Planet Delta. They would continue to use Earth's Stargate address until then.

Two hours later and Cain had distracted herself with chores required of a Fleet Admiral. She had just approved Raptor surveillance missions of the surrounding systems when she realised that she hadn't heard anything from any of the ground teams yet. By her watch they had already been on the ground for half an hour and should be reporting back and giving the all-clear to start to land ships and start transferring supplies. They had been sent ahead to make contact with all of the settlements that the Colonials had contacted last time they were here.

"Have you heard back from the ground teams?" She asked Colonel Belzen who was on the other side of the tactical map as her.

"No, nothing yet. They were due to check in about ten minutes ago though," he said. Cain knew that something was wrong. That DRADIS ghost had her on edge and she couldn't tell why. Usually when that happened there was a reason for it.

"Put me through to the mission commander of the first set-down team," Cain said to the communications officer while picking up the nearest handset. Cain liked to run a tight ship, and now that she was promoted, a tight fleet. She needed to make sure that the ground teams understood that and that a check-in time was a check-in time and did not have any flexibility in its interpretation.

"Lieutenant Brazier. Tell me what the situation is down there," Cain asked him once the communications officer put her through.

"Admiral Cain. I'm still waiting to hear back from six of the ten teams that came down here, but its looking like it's the same all over sir," he said.

"What Lieutenant," Cain asked.

"All the people are gone sir. There's no evidence of any physical violence or any disruption to the settlements themselves. But the people are gone. It's like someone just came and turned all the settlements into ghost towns," the mission commander replied. Cain ran his words through her mind again a few times, waiting for them to digest.

"You mean there's no one there at all?" Cain asked.

"No Sir. No one but us. As far as we can tell so far, sir," the Lieutenant replied. The voice that Cain had supressed in the back of her mind instantly roared to life. In not so many words it was saying 'I was right. There's something wrong about this situation.' Cain knew that it hadn't been a DRADIS ghost that they'd detected upon jumping into the system. It had to be the Cylons. This was the planet that they'd encountered what they'd thought to be a Basestar over.

"Order Condition Two throughout the fleet and put us into a defensive formation," Cain told Belzen before turning back to the handset. "Lieutenant, I want you to double-check and triple check the area. Make sure they're not in hiding. After that, rally around the Stargate and begin setting up our ground-base there. Dial through to the Colonial Contingent at Earth and update them on what's happened," Cain ordered. She did not like this one bit. How could an entire planet with a population of a few hundred thousand disappear without a trace.

**One Day Later – Raptor 438 – System G-523XBW – 10 light years from Planet Delta**

Lieutenant Angratha was regretting taking this assignment. She kept reminding herself of the benefits for her when she got home - a rather large sum of money for taking a long-term out of Colony assignment, guaranteed pension, and ten weeks shore-leave. That would be in three months time. It was her first long-term assignment away from home and she had over-estimated her resilience to home-sickness and the creature comforts that came with deployments inside Colonial space. She could not contact her fiancé or family during rack-time, they didn't get any of the entertainment programmes live-to-air and the food was abysmal. Even though the _Pegasus_ was considered one of the more recent ships, the choice of rack-time entertainment was still fairly abysmal.

The Lieutenant was literally counting down the days until she was rotated back to the Colonies via the Stargate. Her position as a Raptor Pilot was only a stepping stone up the hierarchy to a good paying desk-job on one of the major colonies. It was a lot better prospects than what she was doing now – jumping from system to system scouting for Cylons, Aliens, habitable worlds and valuable resources. She was trying to work out the number of days left until she rotated back home when they jumped to the next system.

She quickly recovered from jump blindness and almost felt her heart stop. Her mind was racing, doubting itself and re-checking what she was seeing in front of her.

"DRADIS Contacts," the ECO almost yelled out. "Frack me! Uhh, up to thirty capital ships of varying sizes and hundreds of fighter-sized ships all around us," the ECO continued.

"What the Frack," Lieutenant Angratha said as she stared dumb-eyed at the sight before her. There were dozens of ships which somewhat resembled a Cylon baseship in front, and around her. They'd jumped into the middle of a fracking fleet. As small as the possibilities were, it had happened and they were now clusterfracked. What's worse is that it looked like a staging area. "Jump us out of here. Now!" Lieutenant Angratha exclaimed to her ECO who didn't need any encouragement.

"Calculating jump coordinates now," the ECO replied. However he never finished inputting the coordinates. A Cylon raider was nearby when the Raptor jumped into the system. It had turned and obliterated the Raptor before they even knew what had hit them.

**Five Hours Later - Planet Delta – Battlestar Pegasus**

Everything was going according to plan. There hadn't been any other DRADIS ghosts and progress was being made towards establishing the first off-world Colonial ground base. It was being built around the Stargate and would primarily be used to transfer personnel and equipment between Planet Delta, Earth and the Twelve Colonies. It was going to be used in the same capacity as Earth's Alpha site. A series of Raptor patrols had been sent out from the system to gather data on surrounding star systems. None of the away teams were due back for another twelve hours yet.

However the story on the planet was completely different. Every single Planet Delta native had just disappeared. There was nothing of them to be seen and no one had any idea why. It had been troubling Admiral Cain and all of the other senior fleet officers as there was no plausible explanation that they could conceive of.

Admiral Cain had just walked into the CIC when all hell broke loose.

"Multiple DRADIS contacts have just appeared in the orbit of Planet Delta," the sensors officer shouted. "I read twelve capital class ships. Configuration is close to a Cylon Basestar."

"What the frack. Where are they?" Cain demanded.

"Currently in geo-synchronous orbit around Planet Delta. None are close enough to us to warrant an immediate threat."

"Order the ground teams to prepare for an aerial or orbital assault," Cain demanded to the XO and others in the command centre. "Put me through to the CAP." Within seconds Cain heard a squelch from the handset indicating that she had just been connected. "What's going on out there Lieutenant," she asked the current ranking officer on CAP.

"I can't see much Sir, they're too far away. The gun camera shows a large ship in a triangular configuration with two distinct hemispheres, much like a baseship sir."

"Alert squadrons have been launched and are forming a defensive perimeter around our fleet," Belzen said to Cain. Cain nodded in recognition before looking back to the DRADIS screen. Their fleet consisted of three battlestars that were in close orbit of Planet Delta accompanied by the mining and scientific fleet that they'd also escorted here. Two Valkyrie class Battlestars were also orbiting the outer system in a wide ranging defensive patrol.

"Launch a raptor to the Valkyries and order them to jump back here in formation with us," Cain said to Belzen before turning back to the handset. "The alert squadrons have been launched. Form up with them in a defensive perimeter around the fleet," Cain said to the CAP leader. "Put me on broadcast on all wide-band frequencies to the ships," Cain said to the communications officer. Within seconds a nod indicated that it had been done.

"Attention unknown ships. You have entered Colonial Protected Space. Please state your intentiions…." Cain started before she was interrupted by an exclamation from across the room.

"Radiological alarm," the sensors officer exclaimed. "They've armed and launched nukes towards the planet," she continued.

"Are any of them heading our way or threatening any other ships in the fleet?" Cain asked.

"No sir. None headed our way," the sensors officer replied. They all stood and watched the DRADIS display as warheads travelled towards Planet Delta. Unknown to the Colonials, the Cylons had just launched multiple nuclear cluster missiles towards the planet. They consisted of multiple self-propelled warheads housed within a larger casing. The larger casing would protect the warheads during atmospheric entry. Once within the atmosphere and slowed to a suitable speed, the outer casing would break away and the individual warheads would shoot forward from the main casing, each with a pre-programmed target.

Cain and the Colonials watched as nuclear explosions erupted across the surface of the planet. Interestingly each nuclear explosion occurred at the location of a settlement, vaporising any traces of human habitation and turning any structures and fields into ash. As soon as the first explosions had erupted across the planet, Cain ordered the Battlestar Pegasus and her sister ship the Chrysaor to spin up their FTL drives and make a combat jump to within point-blank range of the enemy capital ships. However they never got the chance. Missiles were still heading towards the planet when all of the enemy capital ships disappeared in the flash of an FTL jump.


	16. Chapter 16

Authors Notes: I promised a big chapter for the next one, and here it is – big in terms of length and in what happens. I consider everything that's happened before this kind of the "Prologue" to the entire epic story I have planned. This is where the longer-term story is set up.

This chapter is divided into two sections, each could be a chapter, but I've got plans for the 'next chapter in this part of the story. Anyway, happy reading.

**Chapter 16**

**Two Days Later – 100 light years from Planet Delta**

Admiral Cain felt the Pegasus exit its FTL jump. It had become a minor inconvenience now and barely phased her reading the Intelligence Department's analysis of what exactly had happened at Planet Delta. After the attack on the Planet they had informed the Colonial Defence Department via Stargate of the events that had occurred. The majority of the fleet had been ordered back to the Colonies, save for the Pegasus, Chrysaor and the Valkyrie class Battlestar Nightingale. These three Battelstars would continue with one of the original objectives – to scout out space around Planet Delta for any Cylon or alien presence. So here they were, further away from the Colonies than ever before and potentially in the middle of enemy territory.

In addition to the attack on Planet Delta, one of the raptors sent out prior to the attack on Planet Delta never reported back. They followed its planned flight path but didn't find any traces of it. It was worrying to say the least.

Cain returned back to the report, analysing the events that had occurred at Planet Delta. She had skipped to the summary at the back and the conclusions, which were frightening to say the least. Part of it read:

"_The fact that the hostile (Cylon) fleet exited FTL in close proximity to the atmosphere, away from Colonial forces, and rapidly deployed space-to-ground nuclear weapons demonstrates that:_

_The Cylons were aware of the disposition of Colonial forces around Planet Delta. Either the Cylons had ground or orbital based sensor platforms undetectable by Colonial forces, much more advanced sensors, or other means of tracking the location and course of Colonial Fleet ships in the Delta System _

_The hostile (Cylon) fleet attack method was highly efficient and undertaken in minutes, demonstrating a proficiency or intent of committing rapid nuclear space-to-ground attacks. This could show proficiency from previous bombardments under combat conditions, or the intent of ship design to complete such actions in the future. This intention is most probably directed towards Colonial worlds and other (alien) human worlds throughout the galaxy_

_Interestingly the Stargate on Planet Delta was not targeted. It is suspected that this because the Cylons wished to keep the Stargate functional for future strategic uses…"_

Cain was cut off from reading the rest as the handset to her room buzzed.

"Admiral. We are now ready to jump to the final set of coordinates," Colonel Belzen said to her.

"Very well. I'm on my way. Jump the ship when ready," she replied whilst closing the report and heading for CIC. The fleet had continued out further into the unknown after tracking the flight path of the missing raptor. Half a day ago the astronomical department had picked up a system which appeared to have three suitably sized planets in the habitable zone around a G class star. They had decided to make a bee-line for the system and to see what was there. It had the maximum possibility of holding another human civilisation, or remnants of one, which led to a high probability of gathering more intelligence on Cylon movements and actions throughout this sector. Their next jump would deposit them in the outer system after which they would send out Raptor and Viper patrols to scout the condition of the planets in the habitable zone.

Opinions regarding what the Cylons had been doing since the armistice was signed fell into two categories. Those that believed that they were honouring the agreement and making their own way on another world to call their own, content with the cease fire and not likely to cross paths with humanity again, and those that believed that they had strategically retreated and had been developing a massive war-machine for the last thirty-five years in order to come back and wipe humanity from the face of the universe. Obviously these opinions needed revision now that it was known that humanity was spread out across the entire galaxy, but Cain was a firm believer in the latter. The actions of the Cylons and the intelligence report that she had just read furthered her belief.

She was just about to enter the CIC when she felt the shudder of the FTL jump. As soon as they jumped, Cain felt as if she was threatened. It was like she was being watched by some kind of unseen force, and she noticed that the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck were standing upright. It was if the air had become electrified. Cain ignored it for a trick of her body. Deep down in the back of her mind she knew that there were a lot of issues that she needed to work out and probably sort through with a professional. Normal people did not have the craving to be the best and they did not love their job as much as she did. They all preferred to spend time with family, friends, or getting drunk trying to make either. But not Cain. She had a hard time connecting to others and didn't find much satisfaction in it once she did. Instead she delved into her work and strived to be the best, or the first. At one time she had been the youngest person to command a Battlestar. Because of that background, and because of Cain's mindset, she dismissed the feeling that she was getting as nerves without a second thought. Some part down deep in her conscious mind placed the feeling as some part of Cain's subconscious fighting against where her conscious mind was taking her – as the commander of the first fleet to go past the Red Line, into uncharted space and potentially into life threatening danger. The rest of Cain's conscious mind was so adept at learning to ignore these feelings that Cain just simply dismissed the sense of danger as a reaction to the FTL jump, which she shouldn't be having and should push through to show strength and leadership to those under her command. If Cain felt as if she was not strong in front of those under her command, she knew that she had failed as a Commander. She was so adept at doing this that she brushed aside any inklings of danger, dismissing them as part of her damaged psyche and re-collected herself in the time that it would take someone to sneeze and she walked into the CIC.

"Admiral," Belzen noted as she walked into the room.

"Colonel," Admiral Cain replied. She didn't have to given any orders as Belzen knew what to do. After the instance at Planet Delta they were deploying half a squadron for the Combat Air Patrol as well as a number of Raptors to extend their effective DRADIS range. Those ships were already launching and the scouting party was being prepared to do some far-field reconnaissance of the other two planets in the habitable zone of this system.

The whole stalemate with the Cylons irked Cain. Her inability to do anything to them unless provoked was a result of the armistice agreement, which had been drawn up very hastily. Once you looked that the legality of the agreement it was revealed that it only applied to Colonial forces and planets and infrastructure within known Colonial Space. Since the persons and infrastructure on Planet Delta were not part of the Colonies, as declared at the signing of the armistice, the Cylon attack could not be treated as a breach of the armistice. However it got tricky in that it was known that some of the people on Planet Delta had originally been abducted from the Colonies, and were technically Colonial citizens. It was also not known whether the Cylons were aware that all of said persons had mysteriously disappeared from the planet. Under these assumptions and facts, the Admiralty and the Colonial Government was not willing to start a war with the Cylons over the attack on Planet Delta. Hence, Cain's rules of engagement had not been revised and were still extremely strict and limited her ability to attack any Cylon targets. Once again this was just another scouting mission. Cain didn't agree with this line of thought. If the Cylons were out here killing and / or experimenting on humans, they must be stopped.

"What do we have lieutenant?" Belzen asked the sensors officer nearby. The officer had a brief look of trepidation on her face following the order, but quickly read out the measurements.

"As detected before, three planets in the habitable zone. The atmosphere's of all three are nitrogen-oxygen based and all three planets are within the range of Colonial Standard," the officer spoke out. As she was speaking reconnaissance raptors were being launched to get a closer look at the planets before the fleet would move into an orbit and begin conducting a detailed survey.

"Reconnaissance team reports that their FTL drives are spun up and they're ready to make an in-system jump," Belzen told Cain, "the Chryasor, Nightingale and our own FTL drives are spun up also," he continued. The battlestars would remain on Condition 1, ready to jump to location of the reconnaissance teams should they come under fire or jump into a hostile situation.

"Recon team this is Pegasus Actual. You have a go for jump," Cain reported into the handset. Cain watched the DRADIS as ten Raptors disappeared from the DRADIS one by one. Seconds later the DRADIS beeped as ten contacts appeared in the same location as the raptors had once been.

"Raptors have re-appeared in their jump positions. They appear to be drifting lifelessly," the sensors officer stated.

"Get a visual on the Raptors and confirm the jump failed," Cain ordered the sensors officer, whom immediately picked up the phone and began talking to the people manning the external telescopes. The DRADIS issued a series of beeps moments after the failed jump, indicating that there were new contacts within range.

"New Contacts," the sensors officer called out. After a moment of frantically looking at her screen she continued, "five contacts. Their configuration and mass match Cylon baseships that were encountered above Planet Delta," she said. For a moment, panic rose in Admiral Cain but it was quickly pushed down and her logical mind took over. She didn't like this, the failed FTL jump and then the presence of Cylons moments later. "They've jumped into the system between us and the closest planet and are sitting approximately ten-thousand kilometres off our posterior," the sensors officer continued. They weren't too close, but the fact that they'd jumped into the system between them and the nearest planet was disturbing.

She was just about to issue an order to launch the alert squadrons when a chilling thought came across her mind, _'what if the Cylons have found a way to block FTL jumps and had caused the Raptor squadrons to mis-jump_." If that were true, they were absolutely fracked. "Set Condition One throughout the ship and target all dorsal batteries on the closest Baseship. Order the _Nightingale and Chryasor_ to launch alert squadrons and launch our own," Cain ordered. She knew that minutes after giving the order that Vipers would be streaking out of launch tubes of each of the Battlestars.

"Basestars are launching Raiders and they are on an attack vector towards us," the sensors officer said after a few moments, "there are hundreds of them," she added.

"Also detecting weak radiological signatures from some of the Raiders," another officer said.

"They're carrying nukes," Belzen said to Cain. She didn't believe in the whole garbage that people spouted on about – that you were able to look into someone's eyes and see what they were thinking – but Cain could tell that Belzen was quite frightened behind his stoic demeanour. She didn't know what she was feeling, it was something, maybe a mixture of excitement, fear and revenge. This was potentially the first time any of them had been in a real combat situation and Cain was aware that their actions over the next few minutes could be the difference between an ongoing stalemate and the start of the Second Cylon War.

"Radiological signatures detected from the Baseships. They've armed nukes," someone called out

"Order the Nightingale to move towards the Basestars on a parallel vector. Order the reserve Viper squadrons to launch from all Battlestars and cover her," Cain ordered. "Load half of our tubes with nukes and the other half with interceptors." Cain did not like where this was going. They hadn't even had time to tell if the planet below was inhabited and the Cylons had already shown up. She was expecting a repeat performance of the Planet Delta system. Another thought popped into her head – _"what if this world was inhabited."_ If the Cylons were allowed to nuke the planet, they'd be killing hundreds of thousands of people. "What's the status of our reconissance team?" Cain asked. She could not have a dozen raptors sitting out there without power in the middle of this.

"We're just getting reports through now. They all lost power on the jump and are only now starting to regain their systems," Belzen said while covering the mouthpiece of a handset, obviously on the line directly to the raptors.

"Put me through on a tight-beam broadcast on all frequencies to the Cylon Baseships," Cain said to the communications officer whilst picking up her own handset. It could be a pure coincidence that the Cylons had appeared in this system, with what appeared to be the intent of nuking the planet below, and probably the other two habitable planets in the system. If the planet below was inhabited it seemed as if the Cylons were preventing the Colonies from coming into contact with any other civilisations in the surrounding area. _"But why?"_ Cain asked herself. She could only fathom three reasons – to hide something that these civilisations knew about the Cylons, to hide the fact that these civilisations were like the one on Planet Delta – more prisoners from the Colonies, or to prevent these civilisations being absorbed into the Twelve Colonies and bolstering their economy, numbers and industrial capability.

The communications officer nodded at Cain, indicating that a channel was open on all frequencies and was being beamed towards the Cylon Baseships. Her heart was fluttering and her stomach felt as if it were about to come out of her stomach. She was about to disobey her rules of engagement issued to her by the Colonial Fleet. She could not allow the Cylons to bombard the planet below unchallenged, no matter what her orders were.

"This is Admiral Cain on board the Battlestar Pegasus to the Cylon Baseships in our vicinity. Your presence in this region is in direct violation of the Armistice Agreement signed by both of our races in 2539. The Twelve Colonies are not seeking any conflict with the Cylon race and have tempered our reaction to your violation of the Agreement. However any further hostile actions taken to any party, including foreign worlds, whilst on this side of the Armistice Line will be considered an act of war against the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and will be met with equal force," Cain said into the handset. As she was speaking she could see Colonel Belzen looking at her wide eyed. As the words left her mouth, the CIC was silent and most of the officers were looking at her, their mouths agape. They were all anxious of what the next few minutes would bring. She stood there, holding the handset against her mouth for what seemed like an eternity but was only moments. She looked to the communications officer, "any response or sign that they received our transmission?" Cain asked. The sensors officer just shook her head.

"Radiological alarm," someone exclaimed after a few moments. "Ten, make that twenty, nukes inbound towards the Battlestar Nightingale!"

"Order all Vipers to cover the Nightingale and move the Pegasus and Chryasor in towards the enemy Baseships. Launch ECM drones towards the Baseships and move us to cover the Nightingale at full speed," Cain ordered immediately. After a few moments she could feel the Pegasus lurch as the engines were ramped up and their momentum increased significantly. Although the Mercury class Battlestars were floating behemoths, they were equipped with the most powerful engines that the Colonies were capable of creating, and there were twelve of them taking up the rear third of the ship.

"Sir, we are detecting power failures across the Cylon fleet. Telescopes report that Raiders are drifting lifelessly. Radiological readings from the incoming warheads have ceased as well and the missiles have lost their thrust," the sensors officer said. Moments after the words had left her mouth the lights across the CIC and the rest of the ship faded to nothing and everyone was cast into blackness. Cain's heart almost left her body through her mouth at that moment. Moments later the CIC was cast in an orange glow as the emergency lighting started up. If the power failure surprised Cain, the sight that emerged once the lights came back on almost gave her a heart attack. Standing right in front of her, right next to Colonel Belzen, was a white dressed in what appeared to be some kind of tribal outfit. It had a strange headpiece on which Cain could not tell whether it was actually part of its clothing, part of some kind of strange plant or part of its head. The creature was humanoid in had a face with two eyes, nose and a mouth, two arms and two legs, but that was where all the similarities ended.

It was one of only a handful of times that Cain literally could not speak or think. Her mind instantly became a mess and she was not able to put together a coherent thought. The creature was just standing there, looking around and taking in its surroundings. It then looked to Cain. It was the moment that the creature looked directly at Cain that some sense of reality came back to her and she realised that she was in the middle of shouting for security. Marines were already storming into the CIC through the glass doors separating the compartment from the outside corridor.

The marines came bounding into the CIC with their weapons raised and formed a circle around the creature. Cain could tell that the creature knew that it was threatened, and before Cain could tell what was going on, the creature just looked towards the marines and their rifles disappeared from their hands. Fear immediately flooded Cain's mind which caused some part of reason in the back of her mind to click.

"Are you a Cylon," she asked it before she knew that the words were leaving her mouth. The presence of the Cylons in the system as well as this, creature, could not be a coincidence. Cain might be staring at some kind of new Cylon model which was part organic. The creature turned to her and looked her straight in the eye, taking a few moments to consider her words.

"You believe me to be your enemy?" It asked, pausing after the question. "But I am not. My people live here. My name is Birinden," it said to Cain. Cain could see that the marines and everyone else in the CIC had backed away from the two, leaving only Cain, Belzen and this creature around the tactical table.

"Where did you come from?" Belzen asked it.

"I came from out there," it said while gesturing around it. Instinctively Cain looked to were it was gesturing, and she could see that it was only pointing around the CIC. It didn't make sense for it to come from their own CIC. "You're different from last time. You've encountered your brothers earlier than previous cycles," it said before pausing for what seemed like an hour. "My people have been waiting for you and your creations to come," it said further.

"Who are your people?" Cain asked, "and why have you been waiting for us?" she asked after regaining some of her composure.

"We are the Nox and we have been meeting your ancestors here, and your ancestors ancestors here for generations and generations, ever since your kind was created," Biriden replied. Cain had but one thought. _"What! The! Frack?"_

"What do you mean you've been meeting our ancestors here?" Belzen asked it. It seemed to ignore his question.

"We come to you with a message from the ones you call the 'Lords of Kobol' and your creations call 'God'," Biriden said before pausing. "_All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again_. These are words that you are all familiar with. But the constants in the rules that govern fate can be changed. The solution lies in the stream. You will swim downstream in search of the answer, but the answer does not lie downstream. You and your creations must cross together to break this cycle of destruction," Biriden said as if she was reading a hand-written note. Cain looked to Belzen, who just looked back at her with the same lost expression she guessed she was giving him.

"I also bring a message from the Nox. The cycle of death and rebirth is natural. But our patience is growing thin. Too many innocents have been drawn into your cycle over the generations. You are so young, like children you are, stumbling through the universe without considering the consequences of your actions. If this continues, we will break our habits and re-enter the cycle to correct your mistakes, and like children, you will be punished," Biriden said. Cain had no idea what he / she / it was saying, but the last part sounded like a threat to her. Biriden then looked straight into Cain's eyes, "It's time to grow up," Biriden said before it vanished in a shimmer. Cain was just dumbfounded, her mind was still recovering from what happened. She wasn't even able to piece together the thought of 'what the frack just happened'. She could tell that everyone else was in the same situation. They were all just standing there now, staring dumbfounded at empty air.

The normal lights came back on, signalling that all of their systems were re-booting and returning to normal. The DRADIS began to beep erratically, drawing Cain and everyone else out of their shock. Cain looked to the DRADIS to see hundreds of contacts surrounding them, all of which were unknown.

"DRADIS Contacts everywhere. Unknown configuration," the sensors officer said after a few moments of sitting back down at her station.

"Systems are being restored throughout the ship. We are getting reports form all over the ship of an unexplained power outage," Belzen said.

"Cylon fleet and Raiders are powering up sir," another voice said.

"Vipers and the _Nightingale_ and _Chryasor_ also experienced power outages as well as an unknown visitor in each of their CIC's sir," another voice said.

"All Vipers have just appeared out of thin air in the port and starboard landing bays," Cain heard someone else say. She then felt a shudder throughout the ship and the familiar sensation of an FTL jump. Everyone stopped in mid-action at that. They hadn't been planning on jumping anywhere.

"Sir, engineering reports that the FTL drive spun up and activated in a matter of seconds," someone said over the silence. Cain looked to the navigation officer who just looked back at Cain with wide eyes and shook his head, indicating that he didn't know what had happened.

The DRADIS beeped twice and Cain's eyes were instinctively drawn to it. The DRADIS showed two friendly blips, the Battlestar's _Nightingale_ and the _Chryasor_.

"Where the frack are we?" Cain barked. She was very uneasy. No one had any idea what had just happened, and they'd just performed a blind jump without anyone triggering the command.

**Two Hours Later**

Cain kept reviewing the security footage from the CIC of the _Pegasus, Chryasor_ and _Nightingale_. Over and over again she'd watched it and listened to those words that Biriden had spoken, and she was now more confused than she had been before. They'd just finished an officers meeting in her room which had not been productive. The Commanders of the _Nightingale_ and the _Chryasor_ reported that they'd had the same thing happen to them. The security footage from each of the CIC's showed a similar member of the Nox giving the exact same message, word for word.

They'd looked up all the information that they had on the Nox, given to them by Earth, and it wasn't much. It indicated a very advanced race of pacifists that lived on a planet hundreds of light years from where the fleet had _been_. Yet they'd appeared in the CIC of the Battlestars and it seemed as if they'd threatened the entire Colonial Civilisation, if Cain was interpreting what they'd said correctly. That was not very pacifistic. They also seemed to _know_ the Lords of Kobol, which was impossible, even if Cain believed in the deities.

On top of it all was the fact that Cylons had launched_ armed_ nuclear missiles at the fleet. It was an act of war, regardless of whether the missiles actually reached their destination or not. Cain was interrupted from her meticulous analysis of the CIC video footage by a loud knock on her door. She got up and opened it to see a female junior officer there.

"Sir, the navigation report you requested," the officer said whilst handing Cain a manilla folder with _'Admiralties Eyes Only"_ marked in large red letters on the front of it. Cain instantly grabbed it from the Petty Officer. "Thankyou. You're dismissed." She sat down and skimmed right to the summary:

"_After exiting a blind jump, no reference to our position in space could be determined. It was then reasoned that the fleet had travelled a sufficient distance so that constellation references could not be made because of an unexperienced viewpoint of the galaxy. Reference was then made to surrounding galaxy clusters and nebulae within the Milky Way Galaxy using the ship's telescopes to triangulate our location. Through triangulation our location has been determined within an accuracy of 500 light years. This zone is plotted below in Figure 1. This location is approximately 40,000 light years from the Twelve Colonies of Kobol_. _It will take approximately 800 jumps at maximum jump range in a straight line to transverse the distance back to the general area of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. However the uncertainties with respect to our current location and plotting any course back to the Colonies is likely to result in the number of FTL jumps almost doubling as we try to find our way across the galaxy with no spatial reference system. Also computational error at extreme jump range will result in increased uncertainty with respect to our current location, which could also increase the number of jumps required to get ourselves 'back on course' once our location has been defined more accurately. This does not take into account stops to re-supply and for repair work on fleet units…_"

Cain stopped reading there and just muttered one word, "Frack."

**P7J-989**

Her tour of P7J-989 was coming to a close and Sasha Alexandria was packing up her gear. Since coming to the planet and rescuing the locals from their own AI system, she had been continually rotating between her lab on Aerilon, the lab at the Caprica Stargate and P7J-989. Sasha's handle on advanced computing techniques resulted in her rotating between two research projects and occasionally helping out with technology brought back from the Stargate. She was one of numerous people working on unlocking the Caprica Stargate to allow it to dial other planets, whilst refining the holoband-human interface device they'd used to defeat the local AI on P79-989. It had been frustrating at first, constantly rotating between locations and changing research topics every few weeks but Sasha had gotten used to it.

Sasha was lucky that she had skipped a rather depressing time on P7J-989, or Alania as the locals had called it. A few weeks ago a joint Alanian-Earth-Colonial expedition had been launched through the jungles to another colony like the one near the Stargate that SG1 had discovered. It turned out that the entire population of Alania had retreated into domed habitats, all like the one that Sasha had been spending her time in. It had troubled the local Alanians that they had been in stasis for far too long and that an other colony hadn't come and woken them up. The Alanian's technology had been the cause of ecological collapse on the planet. They had abandoned the majority of it when they all went into stasis and hence, they had no vehicles that could be used to journey to the other habitats. The mission had been a failure. The other habitat that the team went to turned out to be a sophisticated mummification chamber. The food distribution system had failed, but the stasis modules hadn't. This had essentially resulted in the entire population of the colony slowly starving and rotting away, although their flesh and organs were preserved. It resulted in a hundred-thousand corpses with muscles barely clinging onto their skeletal structure and a significant blow to the Alanians.

Luckily Sasha had managed to be off-world during that time. The mood was quite the opposite for this tour though, with the successful return of a second expedition to another nearby habitat. This time they found a healthy population still in stasis under control of another rogue AI. After the Colonials managed to analyse the base-code of the AI system the habitat's used to control the stasis pods, it turned out that the system was inherently flawed. There were no boundary-conditions defined to guide the rules that the AI was bound by. In response to this, the AI developed and learned from the shared-experiences of the mind-database that everyone was hooked up to. It resulted in the AI striving to keep the mind-database active and connected.

Sasha had been working closely with Robert ever since they had come to Alania. Robert was the first to use the holoband-computer interface, and he used it spectacularly to disable the Alanian's AI system. Ever since the international relations people had been using that fact to push for increased access to Alanian scientists and technology. The Alanian's had allowed Earth and the Colonies to set up their own set of demountable buildings within the habitat and access to Alanian scientists in appreciation for rescuing them from their never-ending stasis. It was working well, and the Earth & Colonial teams were helping the Alanians to re-establish their facilities.

As Sasha was reflecting on the previous days, she was also packing up her materials. She wasn't going to be back here for a while yet. The Alanian's knowledge of AI systems and computers interfacing directly with the human brain was far ahead of what the Colonies currently possessed. It had allowed Sasha and Robert to bring forward the development timeline for the holo-band computer interface by years. They now had a stable prototype that Sasha was scheduled to take back to the Colonies for further testing and development.

She had just finished packaging up the prototype holoband into its box when she was startled from behind.

"Leaving so soon?" She heard a familiar voice say behind her.

"Major Carter? What are you doing here?" Sasha asked, startled.

"Jack and Teal'c have gone on a black-ops mission. I thought I'd come here and help you with your research while they were gone," Carter replied. Sasha had worked with Carter on a few occasions. Most of those occasions focused around trying to untangle the myth of Kobol's Stargate address and location in-space. Either of them hadn't had much progress getting any Stargate to dial the planet. They'd tried to work out Kobol's location in space based on the coordinates that were programmed into the gate. The problem was that the coordinates did not make any sense. The coordinates did not produce a clear end-point. In fact the coordinates didn't point to anything at all. According to everything they knew the coordinates for Kobol should not lead to anywhere at all. It made for a very interesting puzzle and once they unlocked its secrets they might be able to unlock more secretes of the Stargate, as well as Colonial and Earth history.

"Oh really. I'm just packing up to leave. I'm rotating back to the lab on Aerilon," Sasha replied.

"When are you leaving?" Carter asked.

"I'm leaving with Lieutenant Batiatus' team once they gate back to Earth. In about an hour I think," Sasha replied. "Robert's been doing some research on the gate with me. He might be able to go through some of your work with you if you're going to stick around."

"Did I hear my name," Sasha heard someone say. Behind Carter was Lieutenant Batiatus and a few of her team mates. They were the Colonial representatives of the expedition that had just rescued the other Colony.

"Yeah, just telling Major Carter here that I'm about to leave with you guys," Sasha said to Batiatus as she entered the room.

"Good, good. We're meeting at Rally Point One in twenty minutes before we muster up and go to the gate," Batiatus replied. "It'll be good to…" Batiatus started again before being silenced by a rather violent shudder of the ground and the building that they were standing in. It only lasted a few moments, but it was enough. Sasha looked at Carter, who had stabilised herself against a nearby bench. They all shared a fleeting glimpse between one another before the shudder occurred again. It seemed as if a number of them all had the same idea at the one time as their heads moved towards the door.

As one, they all rushed towards the door which led outside. Technically it was not outside, but rather just out the front of pre-fabricated demountable building that they were in that had been shipped through from the Colonies. Once outside they were still within the transparent dome of the Alanian Colony.

People, Alanians, were running through the 'streets' and screaming and it was utter chaos within the confines of the dome. But there was nothing that Sasha could see that would create such panic and nothing that could have been the cause of the tremor they'd experienced. It was then that she was grabbed by the shoulder and spun around by Lieutenant Batiatus. Sasha was greeted with a sight straight out of the nightmares of all Colonials. Above the buildings, through the transparent material that formed the domed habitat that they now found themselves in, was the top of a mushroom cloud on the horizon.

"That's the other Colony," one of Batiatus' team said, referring to the other Colony that they'd just returned from. As they stood in shock, a golden beam of light rained down from the sky and hit the Colony, causing another tremor and mushroom cloud to rise from the horizon. Soon afterwards another came down from the sky and hit somewhere unseen, farther away, most likely a dormant Colony that they hadn't been able to get to yet.

"That's a blast from a Goa'uld Ha'tak in orbit," Carter said. Their view of the sky was quickly obstructed though. The dome sheltering the Alanians and their colony was made up of a hundreds of hexagonal cells which formed the semi-circle of the dome. Relatively quickly the hexagons turned black as it seemed as if a substance was creeping up the dome from the bottom with series of loud metallic sounds. It crept up the dome and enveloped them, with artificial lighting on the ground automatically switching on.

"What the hell," Sasha heard Carter exclaim.

"What's going on? What the frack is that stuff?" Batiatus exclaimed to the nearest Alanian. The Alanian never got the chance to answer back as Sasha was thrown to the ground, suddenly blinded and her mind screaming at her.

The next thing she knew, Major Carter's face was enveloping her vision and her mouth was moving, but there was no sound. In what seemed like a moment just a bit longer than instantaneously, Sasha began to make out sounds. At the same time thoughts came rushing back to Sasha and she rapidly asked herself a series of questions – 'Why am I lying down? What happened? Why can't I remember anything? Where am I?' and her mind began answering them in rapid succession.

"Sasha, get up!" Carter was shouting at her. As Sasha showed signs of life, she was instantly dragged to her feet by Carter. "Come on, on your feet, we've got to go!" Before she knew what was happening, Sasha's legs were moving as she was being propelled by Carter. She then remembered the blast at the other Colony and looked around her. The dome was no longer lit by artificial lighting but rather the black substance that had enveloped the dome was now glowing red hot. "It's some kind of armour," Carter said. Sasha connected the dots, it was glowing red hot because they'd been hit by one of the energy beams that had hit the other Alanian Colonies.

Carter hearded Sasha back into her research building. Lieutenant Batiatus and others of her team were also moving to shelter within the building.

"What the frack!" Sasha heard someone exclaim. Looking around she could see that mostly everyone was a bit bloody and bruised.

"We're being bombarded from orbit by at least one Goa'uld Ha'tak, probably more," Carter said.

"Why?" Batiatus asked.

"Because they're the Goa'uld," Carter replied.

"How the frack are we still here?" someone else asked.

"The Alanians have some kind of adaptive armour around their dome. It stands to reason that the dome would have automated defences if they were going to put themselves into artificial stasis… but they certainly didn't tell us about it," Carter said.

"Well what do we do?" someone else asked. Just then the door opened and someone else came stumbling through. Sasha recognised him as Robert Halhok, the man she'd been working with on the human-computer interface holoband. He was also the one who had hooked himself up to the experimental holoband and shut down the Alanian's rouge AI when they'd first gotten here. Sasha and he had been working very closely together the last few months on perfecting and finalising the holoband prototype as well as studying the Caprica gate.

"Robert," Sasha said whilst moving towards him. He had blood and dirt all over him.

"Sasha. I wondered if you'd be here," he said.

"Are you alright?" Sasha asked as she guided him to sit.

"Yes I'm fine. The blood's not mine," he answered. Sasha turned back to the conversation that had continued without her

"… secure the Stargate and call for reinforcements," Sasha heard Carter saying.

"Reinforcements against that?" one of the Colonial marines exclaimed while pointing towards the door?

"We'll need enough personnel to guard the Alanian's as we evacuate them through the gate," Batiatus responded to him. "We are evacuating them aren't we?" she asked Carter.

"Yes, it's the only thing we can do," Carter responded.

"Right. We'll need our weapons. They're two complexes over with the rest of our stuff," Batiatus said to Carter.

"We'll also need a way out of here. We can't just walk out of here while the complex is being bombarded, we'll be fried," Carter said.

"The other Colony was laid out exactly the same as this one," Batiatus started, "and they had underground tunnels which led to instruments surrounding the dome to measure the planet for habitability. It'll be a tight squeeze, but if we can find some of these here, we should be able to go down them and come out a few miles from the dome."

An unspoken word seemed to be communicated between everyone and they all started moving towards the door. As Sasha was almost at the door she suddenly turned around.

"Sasha," Carter exclaimed.

"I've got to get the prototype," she replied. She couldn't leave it behind. They were so close to finalising it as a working version that to leave it behind would set them back months. She rushed back into the lab and grabbed the box containing the prototype and her backpack that she'd been packing earlier. She shoved it in, hoisted the pack onto her back and went back out the front door where Carter and Robert Halhok were waiting for her.

The marines got their weapons and issued pistols to all other members in the group. Carter was given a Colonial standard assault rifle and briefly shown how to use it as she'd come through with no weapons, it being a friendly planet.

They'd made it to the tunnels and it seemed like forever that they'd spent moving through them. It was tight, and they were crouched over the entire way. They had ten Alanian's with them as well having picked them up on their way to the tunnel. The Colonial group and Carter needed some people who knew the local landscape a bit better than they did if they were going to get to the Stargate. Carter had told them that if the planetary bombardment didn't work, the Goa'uld would send Jaffa through the gate to enslave the local Alanians. They needed to get to the Stargate as quickly as possible and secure it if achievable to prevent more troops coming through. They then needed to get reinforcements from Earth or the Colonies (as the Colonial's second Stargate was set to become operational any day now) and hold the gate for long enough to evacuate the Alanian population from the Colony.

That was looking like it was more and more unachievable every few minutes. They'd reached the end of the tunnels and climbed out, only to find themselves a few kilometres from a raging forest fire started by the orbital blasts. They also found out about something else that the Alanian's hadn't told them about. There were slivers of white light shooting up from the planet's surface into the sky; some kind of energy weapon capable of reaching orbit. That would be nice technology to get their hands on. However from the continuing golden blasts reigning down from the sky to places far past the horizon, the Alanian's energy weapons didn't look like they were having much effect.

They had managed to get within a few hundred metres of the Stargate without being detected and were now lying down in the thick underbrush, watching through binoculars as Jaffa poured out of the gate.

"They've just dialled in again. The gate will be open for another thirty-eight minutes before we can make any attempt to take it," Carter said after she had put down a set of binoculars.

"But there's too many Jaffa coming through. In another thirty-eight minutes we'll have no hope of taking the gate," Batiatus replied.

"Is there any way of disconnecting their wormhole?" Sasha heard herself asking. It was a stupid question as she knew that there was no way of disconnecting their incoming wormhole – she'd been studying the gate for the last few months.

"No," Carter responded. It was then that Robert Halhok came up beside Sasha and began whispering to her.

"I know a way that might work to disconnect the gate," he whispered to her and only her, "but I need to know if you think its possible too." Sasha just gestured with her face for him to continue. "The holo-band prototype. It's built to be hooked up to the gate on Kobol," he said.

"What?" Sasha exclaimed. The idea was just plain stupid! "We haven't finished it. There aren't enough safety protocols in place. You could end up insane, crazy, brain dead, or worse, just dead. We wouldn't have time for you to adapt to the DHD's programming language…" Sasha started whispering back to him.

"I've been thinking about it for a while. The DHD's the interface and has all the complicated programming language for the gate. If we just hook up the 'band to the gate directly, we bypass all that complexity and I should just be able to issue the gate commands, after a much shorter adaption period. Hopefully I'll be able to issue a command to the gate to disengage the wormhole," he said. There was a few moments as Sasha thought about what he was saying, and in theory, it _could_ work, if a lot of unknown variables turned out to be favourable for them. "Look, the band's at the stage where its ready to start to be used. I know as much about the Stargate as you and Carter do, and I'm the only one who's used the band before. If its possible to use it to interface with the Stargate, I can't think of a better time to do it." Sasha did not accept what Robert was saying. But one part of her brain was thinking about what he said and putting the pieces together. With every minute more and more Jaffa were coming through the Stargate. Soon they'd be at the Alanian Colony and they'd all be enslaved. The Colonials and Major Carter would be hunted down as soon as the Alanian's told the Goa'uld that there were people from the Tau'ri and their allies here. They needed to act now and be brash to have any hope of getting out of this.

"You're sure," she asked Robert again. He just nodded in response.

They shuffled over towards Carter and Batiatus and told them their plan. After some more to and fro about the possibilities of the idea working, it was decided to give this hair-brained idea a go.

"Okay, I'll take some of the marines and we'll circle around and try and catch the Goa'uld in a crossfire. Once they've engaged us, I'll need both of you to go towards the Gate. Sasha you'll need to cover Robert as he does his thing," Batiatus began to say while handing Sasha a second Colonial Assault Rifle that she had strung across her back. We won't be able to hold of the Jaffa for long, so the objective is to establish a brief perimeter and then gradually fall back to the gate. I'll get Mathias and Tyrone to escort you two to the gate and establish a rear perimeter and hold it. This will be our fall back position if we can't disengage the gate and get it open again," Batiatus began to say. She then gave Sasha another device which she recognised as a GDO or Gate-Door-Opener. It would send the unlock code through to Earth to get them to deactivate the iris on the other side. "You'll need to activate this as soon as the portal opens." Sasha just nodded and grabbed it. Luckily Batiatus didn't see that Sasha's hand was trembling as she took the GDO.

Sasha was nervous and very scared, but she had faith that she'd be able to pull it all together when push came to shove. She was good at dong that and had been doing it her whole life. This was no different. They confirmed the plan and Batiatus went off to take half of the marines and circle around the Jaffa's perimeter to strike them from the other side. All together they had fifteen marines, Sasha and Carter and ten Alanians, five of which were given hand guns, the others, nothing. They had to take on and hold off about forty Jaffa, as well as the extra that would come through the gate and the ones that would turn back from heading towards the Colony once they heard the gunfire. They had to hold them all off while some hair-brained idea on technology that wasn't proven and had only been tested a dozen times was applied to technology that was far more advanced than they could fully understand was applied to deliver them all to safety on the other side of the gate, where they'd have to turn around and come right back through with as many reinforcements as possible and fight their way to the Alanian Colony. Sounded just great and like Sasha's last day in this universe.

She gave Halhok the 'band prototype and they lied in wait for the signal. The signal was gunfire, whether initiated by Batiatus and her crew or by the Goa'uld discovering them circling around the perimeter. She heard a sound above them and looked up into the sky and instantly panicked. She saw what looked like a Cylon Raider from the war flying overhead, but realised within a few moments that it was a Goa'uld aircraft, heading towards the Colony.

Gunfire erupted from the other side of the Stargate. That was their signal. Instantly gunfire erupted from a few hundred metres to their left as the rest of the Colonial squad and Major Carter began to engage the Goa'uld. Sasha and Robert were to wait until the Jaffa near the gate were neautralised before moving in. They were not to engage the Jaffa unless absolutely necessary as it was hoped that the fire fight would distract them so they would not realise that Sasha and Robert had snuck up to the gate.

Sasha clutched her assault rifle and stuck her head up from behind the log that she and Robert were lying behind. It looked as if the Jaffa were busy fighting the marines and she turned to look at Robert to signal that it was time to go. Unexpectedly her face was met with Robert's against hers. He kissed her, out of nowhere.

"Time to go," Mathias said to them as he got up and started to move forward. Sasha took a minute to re-compose herself before they both slowly got up from their hiding position. Sasha held the assault rifle at the ready, the butt tucked against her shoulder and it pointed towards the ground. She'd been combat trained, but that didn't mean that she was overly familiar with the weaponry. They slinked forward from tree to tree, getting closer and closer to the Stargate. There were Jaffa still coming from it, but not a great amount and they were instantly being met with bullets from the surrounding forest.

They were at the edge of the tree line and the Stargate was about fifty metres away. They'd come at the Stargate from the rear, where the open wormhole was blocking the view of the Jaffa engaged in the fire fight with the marines at the front of the gate. Mathias signalled for them to come to a halt and Sasha slinked forward to the nearest tree and crouched down, hiding half of her torso behind it. It looked like the plan was working, the Jaffa weren't even looking in their direction and the Jaffa that would usually be guarding the rear had turned and engaged the marines at the front of the Stargate. Tyrone slunk over to Sasha and whispered in her ear.

"Okay, here's your time to shine. You two will need to sprint to the gate and try not to make any noise. Use the gate as cover and shoot anyone that looks like they're aiming a weapon your way. We'll stay hidden in the tree line and circle around. We'll take out anyone who looks like they've noticed you and try to keep the attention on us," he explained. Sasha looked at him as he was explaining this and it looked like he was perfectly confident. He must have been able to see the fear in Sasha's eyes. "Don't worry, you'll be fine," he said, patting her on the shoulder. "Let us get into position and we'll give you the signal," he said before sneaking back into the tree line and starting to circle back around the gate.

"_Lords of Kobol I haven't believed in you before now. But please gods protect me," _Sasha exclaimed in her mind. She looked to Robert who was crouched down ten metres from her, prototype in hand and resolve written all over his face. It seemed like only moments before Mathias was giving her and Robert the signal to go. She got up, took a quick glance around the Stargate area and didn't see anyone even looking their way, and then she was off, sprinting towards the gate. Robert outpaced her and reached the back of the wormhole first, sheltering them from sight.

"Here goes nothing," Robert said. Sasha could barely hear him over the sounds of staff blasts, gunfire and the sound of the open wormhole which was right next to her ear. He put the holo-band over his eyes and held the cord running from the processor sitting just above the ear to an interface device they'd designed for the Stargate. Just before he was about to attach it to the side of the gate she grabbed him and kissed him back. She looked at him and it seemed as if an eternity passed between them, but it was only a second. She wanted him to know that she felt something for him too, even though she didn't know what it was. She nodded to him and he turned back and attached the other end.

She was in a precarious position. One mis-step and she'd enter the incoming wormhole from the rear, instantly vaporising her and spreading her molecules amongst the universe. It was a harrowing thought and one to not be having at this very moment. She re-focused and kept an watch on either side of the Stargate for anyone coming around the sides. She knew that if Robert was able to deactivate the wormhole, she'd need to move pronto and use the actual gate as cover. If he got it to dial, she'd be exposed as soon as the dialling sequence started. Those would be the crucial moments as she would not be able to use the Stargate for cover – the engaging wormhole would disintegrate her. She'd also have to make sure that Robert was out of the way.

Robert then lied down next to the gate and its ramp, sheltered behind where the curve of the gate entered the stone ramp, and flicked the activation switch on the holo-band. Yellow and green lights danced across his face as his mind was, hopefully, connected directly to the Stargate. "Come on, come on, come on," Sasha muttered while still keeping watch on either side of the Stargate, waiting for one of those metal monstrosities to walk around the side. It was a good sign that he hadn't started seizing or convulsing yet, it meant that he was still alive and functioning. It would take a while for his mind to adapt to the 'language' of the Stargate, if he could at all, before he'd be able to start issuing commands which may or may not work.

Sasha noticed that the gunfire was getting closer. She risked a peak around the side of the Stargate and could see that the majority of the Jaffa around the Stargate had moved away and that the fire fight was happening in the forest now. But she could see a few Jaffa with their backs to her, firing at their opponents still in the forest. She could shoot them in the back and help out the marines in the forest, but that would reveal her position. If it was a wise move to do that, Tyrone and Mathias would have done so from their positions in the forest flanking the Stargate. No, she should not do that.

An eternity passed with muzzle flashes in the forest disappearing and dwindling to what seemed like too few. What's more is that Sasha could see that the Goa'uld that had been heading towards the Alanian Colony must have doubled back and it appeared that the Colonial forces were now caught in a crossfire.

Everything suddenly happened at once. She caught a glimpse of Mathias giving her the signal to disengage and retreat. They were taking too many losses and he must have gotten a radio call from Batiatus saying to retreat. But at that exact moment, the wormhole disappeared and Sasha was left crouching on the Gate's ramp, totally exposed. She looked to Robert, who was sill lying down behind the where the ring of the Stargate and the holo-band was still activated.

She was now exposed and there were a few staff blasts which went zipping by, only a few meters from where she had once been. Automatically, without thinking, she'd surged forward and crouched down behind the gate side of the DHD, covering her from any fire from Jaffa in the forest. It did leave Robert exposed, but you could barely see him from this angle so she was hoping that he would be okay.

"Dial, dial, dial, dial," she heard someone screaming. She looked up to see Batiatus behind a tree at the edge of the clearing for the Stargate. There was weapons fire erupting from behind her facing further into the forest, firing at the Jaffa that had come at them from the rear. Sasha moved to get up but heard a strange sound behind her. She turned to look only to see something she had never seen, or expected to see. There was a wormhole forming in the Stargate, but it was appearing in a circular pattern, fully formed, without the explosion of energy that usually accompanied a gate activation. There had been no dialling sequence or anything, just the wormhole forming.

It only took a few moments for the wormhole to form and fully stabilise with a series of ripples emanating across the surface once the wormhole had appeared.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Sasha shouted at the top of her lungs towards Batiatus. This attracted a number of golden energy bursts to come her way, narrowly missing her and singeing her hair. Gunfire erupted from behind her as Mathias and Tyrone engaged the Jaffa as well. She crouched back down against the DHD and grabbed the GDO which was attached to her belt and mashed down on the button repeatedly.

She then crouched up behind the DHD, using it for cover and saw Carter, Batiatus, a marine and three of the Alanians back pedalling towards her while firing into the forest. She could now see the Jaffa advancing and without thinking, she raised her weapon, took aim and fired, the kick of the weapon digging into her shoulder and bruising it. She had no idea if her rounds hit anything, but it was more covering fire that would slow them down. She let off a few more rounds and ran around the side of the gate to get Robert. She was stopped in her tracks. He was lying on the ground, blood pouring out of his ears, nose and eyes, not moving.

"Robert! Robert!" she shouted while moving around the gate to use it as cover and crouching down to him. She also noticed that there were burn marks all over his head and that the holo-band was no longer attached and lying on the ground smoking. Sasha could then hear a loud thumping sound and she looked up to see one of the Goa'uld aircraft approaching, firing a line of energy bolts towards the Stargate in a strafing run. She saw two of the Alanian's hit with energy blasts as they were sprinting for the Stargate. Carter was at the DHD and also sprinting towards the gate. Carter shouted 'Come on!' to Sasha just before she entered the event horizon at full speed. Sasha didn't have time to even take a second breath before something slammed into her and she was lifted into the air, winded.

Sasha hit the ground hard and rolled, caught up in something else. She was also hot and could feel a burning sensation on her arm. By the time she came to a stop and the world was still spinning around her she could see that it was pitch black, the light from the wormhole giving the only illumination in the area. Just as she had absorbed that fact, the gate disengaged, leaving her in darkness.

"Who's that?" she heard a familiar voice say. Sasha looked to her arm that had the burning sensation. Her uniform was scolded and her skin beneath it red-raw, likely third degree burns. It was then that she realised that there was someone else next to her. She could just see in the darkness, her eyes still adjusting from the daylight of the world before. Whoever it was, there was a large burn on their back and they were not moving. It only took Sasha seconds to realise that they were dead. She rolled the person over and instantly vomited as she made out the features. It was Lieutenant Batiatus.

"Who's that. Where are you. I can't see," Sasha heard again. She recognised it as Carter. "It's Sasha," she replied. Sasha just realised that she couldn't hear a lot of movement, except for Carter somewhere over to her right. There should have been more noise, more movement. Then she realised that the gate was deactivated. Everyone else on the planet hadn't made it through, and Robert was dead.

"Everyone else. What about everyone else," she exclaimed in a panic.

"I don't know where we are. This obviously isn't Earth!" Carter exclaimed. Sasha could hear a strange noise and it took her a few moments to realise that it was her. It was all her fault. If she hadn't stood there dumbfounded like a deer in the headlights, she could have shot some more Goa'uld. If she hadn't stood there like a deer in the headlights, Lieutenant Batiatus wouldn't have had to grab her as she came through the Stargate and she might not have gotten hit by a staff blast.

"Its all my fault," Sasha exclaimed as she let out a sob next to the corpse of Batiatus. Suddenly the world was bathed in light as Carter found her flashlight that was in her pack.

"We're the only ones," Sasha heard Carter say as she approached. "Come on. There's time for that later. We've got to dial Earth and get them to send reinforcements through while the rest of them still have a chance," Carter said. Sasha quickly realised that she was right, the more time that they spent here was the less time that their people back on P7J-989 would have. She got up and stood next to Carter. It was night time and there was thick cloud cover above them. Sasha could see the faint outline of buildings around them, but they were surrounded by thick vegetation as well. Maybe they were in a set of ruins. Sasha saw Carter move forward, alarmed. She was sweeping the flashlight around.

"What's wrong?" Sasha asked, surprised that she could put two words together.

"There's no DHD," Carter said. "We can't dial the gate." The words simply went into Sasha's ear and decided to stew around in her mind before the implications they carried actually got through somewhere. A few too many moments later, it clicked for Sasha. No DHD, no dialling, no rescue for their people on P7J-989. As soon as that thought actually entered her mind, Carter's spotlight pinpointed something in the darkness about thirty metres from the gate. They both approached it, disappointed to see that it wasn't a DHD. Instead it was just a pedestal with writing on it.

"_Our children have abandoned us and poisoned this world. We move onto the next and leave this place for them once they are worthy. Some of us may see them when they cross the stream to join us in Elysium, others would prefer that we see them introduced to the fiery chasm of destruction and continue the cycle eternal. We have made our mistakes and it is now time for them to make theirs. May they have better fortunes than we – Aphrodite." _

"Does that mean anything to you?" Carter asked.

"No," Sasha replied.

"Come on. We'll have a look around to see if there's anything that can help us dial the gate," Carter said while walking further away from the gate and into the darkness, Sasha following. Sasha was numb, her mind not working or wanting to work. She was just plodding along behind Carter, looking around for anything that wasn't rubble. It was just about all of the brain function that she was capable of at the moment.

That's why it took her an hour to figure it out. The saying on the pedestal. She had heard it before; the Book of Aphrodite in the Sacred Scrolls.

"Holy Frack!" she exclaimed, causing Carter to pause and turn around.

"What?" Carter asked.

"I think I know where we are," Sasha said, still trying to work it out and poke any holes in her theory. "I think this planet is Kobol."

\\\\\  
Two big cliffhangers hey! Leave plenty of reviews and let me know what you think. I think that this chapter is well worth the wait.

And for those of you who don't like the spiritual side, don't worry, it's going to be a bit subtle and not over-the-top and the main storyline like the TV series. I am also undecided on whether to incorporate some of the more fanciful elements from the TV series (like the Final Five, Angels (maybe – they were also established in Caprica, and for the first 3 seasons of BSG, kept deliberately vauge which I will do if I incorporate them) and magical markers to Earth etc.


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Notes: **Hi Guys. I've abandoned the idea of having a series of three chapters (this being the third) that drastically changed things up, mainly because I can't do it in only three chapters and need more. I thought it would be more prudent to update with this chapter (at 4,500 words) than to let you wait another month for a 10,000 word update with everything in it.

Just some replies to some reviews that I think need stating – this is outlining my justification for some choices in the previous chapters

**Shadownight1389:** I agree that the Nox would not interfere for all the reasons that you said. However I've decided to take it deeper and have always been curious as to _why_ the Nox are pacifists. I am exploring this In this story, and the reason _why_ they are is linked to the ancestory of the Colonials and the cycle of 'all of this has happened before and will happen again'. In this story, the Nox did something so incredibly _bad_ that they backed out of interfering because of guilt and being afraid to _stuff up_ that big again. I believe that if they are given a chance to correct that original mistake, they will interfere and stop being pacifists if it means correcting the original sin their race committed. Additionally, I'm not taking a simple approach with things – there will be Nox that interfere, and some that keep their philosophy of not interfering – one of these _might_ be a splinter group.

**Nedy Rahn**: I do not know if I'm going to incorporate the Final Five, Cylon Earth and the rest of it yet as I thought several things about that storyline were a cop-out. I might just keep it simple to 'man created cylons, they evolved…' as it was in the first seasons of BSG – more frightening that way I believe – but, as stated earlier, I'm undecided.

**Maltor: **that preview still stands, but as stated in the Authors Notes, it will now happen over a few chapters rather than just three.

**Everyone else**: Thanks for all the reviews and keep them coming. They inspire me to write and some have given me ideas on how to change some of my storylines.

**Raptor Patrol – Unknown Space**

The announcement over the _Pegasus'_ comm systems earlier in the day was enough to lower morale into non-existence. They were forty-thousand light years from home with no real idea of where they were. To make matters worse the _Chryasor's_ FTL had failed when the battle-group had attempted their first jump after their unwanted instantaneous journey across the galaxy, leaving them stranded. Until the FTL drive was repaired from a major refit that was currently underway, they were left doing patrols of the surrounding space. The nearest systems were between two to five jumps away from the battle group.

They had just jumped into the second system in orbit of a planet in the habitable zone when Lieutenant Balihanson immediately noticed a number of small flashes in her periphial vision, temporarily causing her to squint.

"What the frack is that?" Lieutenant Balihanson, the pilot of Raptor 6652 and the current lead of the four-raptor scouting mission said.

"What?" her ECO asked. Balihanson looked back over to where she saw the flashes but couldn't see anything anymore. As her ECO began to look in the region that Balihanson was looking one of the consoles at the ECO station beeped. "Radiological alarm," the ECO stated. After spending a few moments looking at his screens he continued, 'multiple nuclear detonations off our port bow approximately 100,000 kilometres bearing 320340."

"Raptor 4519 to Raptor 6652, are you detecting nukes off our port bow," Balihanson heard over the wireless.

"Confirmed. We're analysing now. Suggest orienting external cameras for a closer look," Balihanson replied. As she said that her ECO was orienting the external cameras so that they could zoom in and have a look at what was happening. Unfortunately they were too far away to see anything in detail, except that there was a battle occurring just above the horizon of the planet that they had jumped into.

All of the Raptors accelerated using their sublight engines, and when much closer to the combat zone, they shut off their engines and all power systems except for DRADIS and monitoring equipment. Balihanson then used this opportunity to have a look at the video feed from the external cameras.

"Is that what I think it is?" she asked her ECO while staring at a starfish shaped ship being ripped apart by a flying pyramid. Just as she said it another flash lit up the screens, as a nuclear warhead detonated against the pyramid ship.

"Yeah it sure is. It's a Cylon Basestar. Same kind as we saw at our last jump point," her ECO replied. "The pyramid ship is firing golden bolts at the Baseships. They're getting ripped apart." Balihanson kept staring at the video feed. As the energy from the nuclear explosion dissipated she could see that there was a glowing energy field around the pyramid ship, protecting it from the majority of the damage that would have been caused by the nuke. She looked to another camera to see that the Baseships seemed to be at extreme weapons range, using what seemed to be a swarm of thousands of raiders to strike at the enemy ship. Golden bolts emanated from the pyramid ship and continued to strike at the Basestars which just simply exploded at the location where one of the energy blasts hit them. The sheer distance that the Baseships were from the pyramid ship allowed them to maneouver just enough so their central pyres were not struck by the enemy's blasts which could potentially rip the Basestars apart.

Looking at another camera Balihanson could literally see what looked to be a swarm of insects buzzing around the pyramid ship, with more swarms between the opposing capital ships. It looked like some of the raiders were purposely moving into the paths of the golden bolts rapidly moving from the pyramid ship to the Baseships, dissipating some of the energy in the blasts. All at once, the most of the swarms seemed to multiply as every second raider unleashed a volley of missiles towards the enemy's capital ship.

"Radiological alarm, obviously," the ECO said in a whisper. They watched as the missiles trailed towards the pyramid ship only to impact on the energy field protecting it. There was a flash, then another, and another. Repeatedly nuclear missiles mixed with conventional warheads impacted on the shields of the enemy ship. The surreal scene unfolding in front of them made the period of nuclear detonations against the enemy ship's hull seem like it took hours to unfold, when in reality it was only two and a half minutes. Still the pyramid ship's energy shield held.

As soon as the missile volley had subsided multiple energy blasts from the pyramid ship struck one of the four Cylon Basestars causing secondary explosions to emanate along the arms of the ship. It took its time coming apart but eventually it fractured into multiple pieces. This left three Cylon Baseships, one of which took a hit to one of its arms from the Pyramid ship's blasts. Moments after this occurred, the Baseships began to wink out of existence.

"They're retreating," Balihanson said, "but leaving their raiders behind." As she looked closer at the screen she could see flashes amongst the swarm of raiders. Zooming one of the cameras in she could see the tell-tale flash of an FTL jump.

"The raiders have an on-board FTL?" her ECO stated, half a statement and half a question. There was another flash against the pyramid ship, drawing Balihanson's attentionback to it. This time she could see visible damage against the hull and secondary explosions occurring over various parts of the ship. Her eyes were averted from the scene as another missile volley was launched by the Raiders. This time the missiles veered off, away from the Pyramid ship and began to head towards the planet as the Cylon Raiders began to wink out of existence _en mass_.

Balihanson and her ECO just watched as the missile swarm headed towards the planet. Within five minutes some of the missiles left their view as they entered the atmosphere. Minutes passed that seemed like hours before the first flash appeared on the surface of the world. Then another, and another, and another until it seemed like the entire northern continent had been covered and most likely turned to glass.

"We have to get this footage back to the Admiral," Balihanson said to her ECO before returning to her seat in the pilot's chair. "All Raptors spin up your FTL drives and jump to our rendezvous coordinates," Balihanson said into the radio. She could hear their own FTL drive spinning up but she waited until the other three Raptors had winked out of existence before she engaged their own drive, returning them to the safety of the Battlestars Pegasus, Nightingale and Chryasor.

**Two Hours Later – Briefing Room, Battlestar Pegasus. **

It was the third time that Admiral Cain, Commander Hulon of the Battlestar _Nightingale_, Commander Tryst of the Battelstar _Chryasor_ and the majority of their associated command staff had watched the footage brought back by one of their Raptor Patrols. Upon the third viewing the sheer ability of the Cylons to mass-launch nuclear warheads, or the abilities of the pyramid ship as displayed on the wall-sized video being projected onto the wall, were no less frightening. Admiral Cain and the rest of the senior command staff knew that the Pyramid ship was a Goa'uld Ha'tak class ship as they had been briefed on what the Colonial Government knew of the race, via information that had been passed on from Earth.

"How are the Cylons all the way out here," one of the senior officers from the _Nightingale_ asked.

"They must have gotten the same visit from the Nox as we did, and the same unexpected jump across the galaxy," Colonel Belzen replied.

"And then they jumped to the nearest system containing planets, just like we did, and encountered a little surprise," Commander Tryst added.

"Question is, where's their fifth Basestar?" Commander Hulon asked.

"Probably destroyed before our forces arrived. Or stranded like the _Chryasor_," Cain replied. The video display on the wall re-started playing the Raptor's footage for a fourth time.

"We can not come across any of those ships as we jump back towards the Colonies. They'd destroy us. We don't have expendable fighters to absorb those blasts like the Cylons do," Colonel Belzen stated.

"Unfortunately we don't know where they might be, or what systems are Goa'uld controlled. Not even Earth has that kind of information. Whenever we enter a system we run the risk of coming across one or more Goa'uld ships," Cain replied.

"What we need to do is to somehow contact Earth and get them to plot known friendly and hostile Stargate addresses so we can use that to have at least some knowledge of potentially friendly systems that may be between us and the Colonies," Belzen said.

"Once our techs have plotted the surrounding stars with some degree of accuracy we can attempt to work out Earth's Stargate address," Cain replied. She was referring to the fact that they didn't have their position plotted in the galaxy, and therefore couldn't use the constellation symbols occurring on a Stargate to locate Earth. Once they had plotted the star constellations as visible from their current viewpoint they'd be able to determine potential symbol combinations to locate Earth. On Earth this work was done from Stargate Command who had developed a virtual model of the galaxy. However this was the first time that the Colonials had even been interested in the stars outside their local area and therefore the Battlestars were not equipped with a virtual model of the galaxy.

"We'd need to find a Stargate," Commander Hulon said.

"I'm betting that there's a high chance of a Stargate being on that planet," Cain replied while pointing towards the video that was playing on the wall in front of them.

"We can't use that. We'll have to get through that ship," Commander Tryst said.

"Not necessarily. We can jump a Raptor squadron into the upper atmosphere, scan for the Stargate and land. I'm betting that the Stargate was on the continent that was nuked and that there aren't that much ground forces remaining," Cain said. "There are a lot of unknowns and assumptions about that plan though so we'll need to send a team that is capable of adapting." There was silence for a few beats as everyone considered the suggestion.

"I've got just the people," the _Nightingale_ CAG said, breaking the silence. Cain nodded towards her.

"Good. Formulate the particulars of the plan with your respective strategists and get it to me in three hours," Cain said to her.

"Commander you can spare a Raptor squadron for this mission?" Cain asked.

"Yes it should not be a problem," he replied. There was silence as everyone watched the images of the battle on the wall.

"Raiders that can jump," Cain muttered under her breath.

"What's that?" Belzen asked. Cain took a few moments to re-compose herself.

"We learned something important from this. Cylon Raiders have an FTL drive. That's a huge advantage over our Vipers," she replied to Belzen.

"I wonder what other advances they've made," Belzen stated. There was another pause throughout the room.

"We can find out," the Pegasus CAG said while breaking the silence.

"What's that? How?" Commander Hulon asked. "

If we jump in and have a look at the wreckage. There's bits of Basestar and Raider floating around all over the place. All we need to do is go in and grab some parts that aren't too destroyed, bring them aboard, and then we can start having a look at them," the Pegasus CAG said. It took Cain a few moments to register the idea as she thought it over. It was rather ingenious – scavenging the wreckage to find out what advances the Cylons had made.

"You're forgetting something. As soon as we jump in, that alien ship will blast us out of the sky," Commander Tryst asked stated.

"There'll be alien fighters in that debris too," the _Nightingale_ CAG stated. That caused everyone to pause to think over her statement. She was right of course. They all knew that the Goa'uld Ha'taks carried a fighter contingent with them, albeit a remarkably small fighter contingent compared to the Battlestars and especially the Cylon Basestars.

"Jump Raptors in and drift into the debris field with minimal power. Get the Raptors to attach to a nice wholesome looking piece of debris, alter their FTL field and jump back," the _ Pegasus_ CAG stated.

"That's risky. A mis-calculation and the jump back could destroy the Raptor," Admiral Cain replied.

"It can be done… Raptors from the _Valkyrie_ just after Adama left did it to rescue hostages taken by the Virgo Halyers," the _Pegasus_ CAG replied. Cain was literally salivating at the prospects. She had been a bit harsh with her warning message to the Cylons back in the Nox system had been a bit harsh and could potentially start a war. There was a high likelihood that the Cylons had been thrust out here by the Nox as well. That gave them the opportunity to hunt down the three remaining Basestars and destroy them before they got back into Cylon space, therefore erasing all evidence of Cain's warning. If that message did not get back to Cylon Command she could advert a war. Correction, she could prevent herself being responsible for the ignition of a second Cylon War.

Cain could tell that both Hulon and Tryst thought that the Raptor recovery mission was a good idea as she received a subtle nod when she glanced at them both. She knew that they weren't completely on her side. She was after all a junior officer compared to both of them and she had been rapidly promoted to Admiral. Both of them were subtley confining her to a junior position over the course of this mission, each taking their opinion higher than hers whilst still obeying orders. It was Cain's goal to earn the respect of both of these senior commanders, therefore proving her competency as Admiral to herself. Too late she realised that this agenda was not supported by her subconscious glance seeking approval from both the Commanders. Regardless, they were all in agreeance.

"Okay then. As soon as the Chryasor's FTL drive is repaired, the mission is a go. If anything goes pear-shaped we can jump out and run if we have to," Cain replied.

**Eight Hours Later – Starboard Landing Bay – Battlestar Pegasus**

The Raptor patrol had successfully returned carrying with them approximately enough parts to make about five whole Raiders, and half of an enemy fighter craft commonly known as a Death Glider. All of the parts were being kept on the deck in a vacuum and away from personnel just in case they were booby trapped. However the entire Raider that they had recovered was currently being lowered into the lower decks so the deck crew could have a look. After seeing the new Raider design it was a wide assumption amongst the Colonial personnel that the Raiders were now their own AIs, instead of having a Centurion pilot like the old Raiders of the first Cylon war. They had been ordered to attempt to recover all data from the data-banks of the Raider's AI, or the Centurion Pilot if their assumptions were wrong.

Immediately after the lift bringing the Raider down into the lower deck stopped, nearby marines circled the craft. A harness attached to a crane was used to lift the Raider and move it to a workstation where a deck crew circled the craft looking for any signs of activity, access hatches and identifying all the parts of the ship.

After half an hour, no access hatch had been found and it was confirmed that the Raider was definitely dead, although they already knew that before they even let the craft be lowered onto the maintenance deck. There were no electrical signals coming from inside the ship, meaning that if there was a Centurion in there it was inoperable.

Slowly the Deck Chief began to cut their own access hatch into the Raider using a thermal torch. After a few minutes he could smell something that wasn't right. After inspecting the cut that he was making he could not ell of anything amiss and kept carving his way through the hull to create an access hatch. Once he coplted the square it dropped away to reveal a red substance beneath the chrome metal exterior. The Deck Chief touched it and was startled to see that it contracted at his touch.

"We're going to need the Admiral down here," he said to the nearest crewmember.

**Half an hour later – Battlestar Pegasus**

Cain had received a rather urgent call from the deck crew requesting her presence regarding the recovered Cylon Raider. They did not care to elaborate on the handset, rather just saying that they 'would not be able to recover any data from the Raider, and that she must get down there as soon as possible'. Cain was curious to see what the deck crew needed to show her so urgently. Surely they couldn't have found something so substantial that they couldn't say over the line.

Cain thought about their next moves as she walked down to the Starboard maintenance deck. Unfortunately the second part of the Raptor mission hadn't been as successful; they were unable to find a Stargate on the planet. They would have to jump out of this area and scout further planets to try and find a Stargate so that they could establish contact with Earth, and therefore the Colonies, and update the Fleet about their status.

Cain descended the ladder onto the maintenance deck to see the entire deck crew surrounding the captured but incapacitated Cylon Raider. A rancid smell hit her as soon as she got within fifty metres of the ship. It smelled like road kill. The crowd parted as she approached.

"You need to have a look inside this ship," the Deck Chief said to her. She could see that there was a hole cut in the ship and a ladder leading up into the opening.

"What's that smell chief?" Cain asked, not fathoming what it could be. Had the Cylons used captured humans from Planet Delta to pilot the Raider? That was the closest explanation that she could come up with.

"Have a look inside the ship," was the only reply that he gave her. Cain approached the ladder against most of the rational parts of her mind which were telling her to get away from that smell. The Chief handed her a torch as she approached the ladder.

It took her a few moments to fathom what she was looking at once her head entered the hull of the Cylon Raider. The inside was red, with mucus clinging to the uneven, floor and ceiling of the inside of the Raider. It was then that Cain realised that she was not inside the hull of the Raider, but the coelom or body cavity of the Raider. The insides of the gods-damned thing were organic!

As Cain descended the ladder her mind was racing. '_The Cylons are sufficiently advanced to design organs and biological systems to act as a fighter system. What does this mean for other advances they've made and what advantages does that give them'; 'The Raider has become an animal, whose habitat is the vacuum of space, and whose purpose is to destroy Vipers out of the sky'; 'Why the frack would you construct a biological organism as opposed to a mechanical Raider'_ were just some of the thoughts beginning to form in her brain.

"This thing is well above my paygrade. We're going to need a doctor down here to have a look at this thing. Even then I don't know how far we're going to get," the Chief said. Cain just nodded in response, taking his words in.

"We'll be jumping in twenty minutes. After the jump you have my authority to get anything you need," Cain said. She agreed with the Chief in that there wasn't anyone in the fleet that would be able to make any significant headway in examining the internal systems of the Raider. This just reinforced their need to find a Stargate and get some personnel from the Colonies that had some kind of experience in astro-biology onto the ship. The problem was, as discussed in the management meeting earlier in the day, that they didn't know which world would have Stargates on them, and which would be protected by the Goa'uld. Things were about to get very interesting.

**Earth – Cheyenne Mountain – Stargate Command**

Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill was all that was left of SG1 at this stage. After their successful raid on one of Her'ur's worlds (PJX-592) for Goa'uld larvae, Teal'c had taken the captured specimens back to the orbital habitat of Aquarion that they had visited earlier. There the specimens would be studied to see if the Colonial scientists had a way to safely remove Teal'c's symbiote without causing him any harm. Apparently, one of the worlds of the Twelve Colonies had a similar parasite native to the world when the Colonial Humans arrived. Their 'Lords of Kobol' had given them the means to remove those symbiotes and exterminate them from the planet. It was hoped that the Colonials would be able to adapt these methods to use on the Goa'uld.

Carter had gone to visit P7J-989 but had failed to check in. Earth had dialled the gate to try and get a radio signal to her but had received nothing. They lost contact with a MALP seconds after they sent it through, but not before it was able to send back video footage of at least one Jaffa standing by the DHD. They had not been able to establish a connection since.

It was for this reason that the Colonial liaision party had been summoned for a joint meeting with the remaining members of SG1 and General Hammond. There had been a significant Colonial contingent on P7J-989 and they needed to find out what had happened. They had been in talks for the last half an hour, just going over possible scenarios of what could have happened on the planet.

"Look to cut things short. There's no point going back and forward with what has happened and who is going to do what. Basically we want you to send a ship to P7J-989, assess the situation and if possible, land a team and recover our people," O'Neill said, interrupting anyone.

"That's a big ask. Do you know how far away P7J-989 is away from the Colonies. It will take at least one hundred jumps to reach the system," Aerisis, one of the Colonial Intelligence Officers replied.

"Not our problem. We don't have any ships so we can't do it. You guys have hundreds of big honking ships that can get there. We've helped you out a lot, and they're your people too," Jack replied.

"I think what Jack's trying to say is that we've given the Colonials almost un-restricted access to our Stargate, given you all the intel that we have, and assisted you in many other ways. We feel that it is in the best interests of all parties if you could assist us with recovering our people. Major Carter is invaluable to this program, and by extension, to yours and we believe that any risks to recover her alone would be worth it," General Hammond said to the Colonial contingent.

"We agree. But we can't send an entire Battlestar group a quarter of the way across the galaxy on a whim. We need information," Aerisis replied.

"What we'll do, which is a much more sensible approach, is find a nearby friendly world with a gate, go through and construct a Raptor, then jump to P7J-989 and learn what we're up against. We'll re-assess the situation and what we'll do about it from there," another one of the Colonial Officers said. Jack looked to Hammond and Daniel who were nodding in agreement.

"Fine. But Danny and I are on that Raptor," Jack replied.

**Morning - Kobol**

"Martouf, Martouf," Carter was exclaiming in her sleep, waking Sasha. They had taken shelter inside some ruins that seemed structurally sound. After a few hours neither her or Carter had been able to go on and had decided to rest and wait until morning. It was lucky that they had found shelter as not long afterwards a rainstorm had passed over. It had made the morning hot and sticky, much like Sasha was used to growing up in a tropical area. "Martouf," Sasha heard again from Carter, who was saying the phrase in her sleep. She leanded over and shook Carter until she woke up.

"Sam, you were dreaming," Sasha said after Carter awoke.

"Hey, what?" Carter replied.

"You were dreaming," Sasha replied. "Whose Martouf?" she asked. She could see Carter go to answer, but then she changed her mind regarding what she was going to say.

"I don't really know. And it's a long story," she replied. Unbeknownst to Sasha, Carter had actually been having a dream as Jolinar, a Goa'uld symbiote that had possessed Carter for a short time. In the dream, a Stargate address was revealed to Carter which was the current address of the Tok'ra, a Goa'uld sect opposing the System Lords. In another time or another universe, where Carter would have been at the SGC, SG1 would have travelled through the Stargate to the address in Carter/Jolinar's dream and found the Tok'ra as they were in the process of abandoning their current world for a new one to hide from the Goa'uld. Carter would never give the address to the SGC in time for them to encounter the Tok'ra. Instead they were both stuck, alone on Kobol.

As Sasha reflected on their status as the only two people on Kobol and Carter was still arising from her sleep, something happened that send adrenalin racing through Sasha's entire body and made all the hair on her arms and the back of her neck stand up. Somewhere outside the small ruins they were currently sheltered in, a twig snapped.

**End Notes:** the last bit is basically saying 'because of the AU timeline, the episodes of Tok'ra Part 1 and Tok'ra part 2 will not happen – therefore the SGC will not meet the Tok'ra until later. This is just to highlight how the Colonial involvement is changing the timeline / plotline.


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Notes: **Potentially the most game-changing chapter in Origins of Humanity Yet! I have been thinking about all of these storylines since my last update, but only put finger to keyboard tonight. Focusing on the SG characters in this chapter, amidst Colonial settings. More and more Earth based and SG based things are going to start to happen from now on.

Something I've never seen done in any story also makes up the last part of this chapter. Enjoy and give reviews!

For those of you who read this chapter when it was first uploaded, I have only edited it. There are no significant revisions except for word-changes to make it more readable.

* * *

**Chapter 18**

**Kobol**

Samantha Carter had never been to a place that was so… frustrating. They had been on this planet for almost an entire day, roughly to 30 Earth hours, and neither she nor Sasha had found anything. They had been stumbling through what was the remains of what was supposedly a once great civilisation where the 'Gods' had shared their love with humans to no avail. For all Colonial's 'Gods' exposition and greatness there was nothing left here now except piles of rocks that had been reclaimed by nature. A great civilisation would use materials more advanced than rocks to build their structures and there was no evidence of such materials anywhere here. It was one of many things that were weighing on Carter's mind which contributedto a slightly 'off' feeling she had for this place. If Carter didn't know this was Kobol she'd say that there had once been a medieval society living here, not some great star faring civilisation that had supposedly created humanity.

The small amounts of scratchings and engravings in rocks had left no doubt in Sasha's mind that this was Kobol though. There was now 'too much' evidence that this was Kobol the supposed birthplace of all mankind to sway Sasha's mind from anything else. Perhaps it was this blind unquestioning faith that Sasha was showing that was frustrating Carter so much, rather than the place itself. From what Carter had seen so far Sasha was a calm, rational thinker and should not have been capable of this kind of rushed, blind thinking. There was also evidence that humanity evolved on Earth too, which Sasha knew, but Carter was keeping that to herself and did not want to remind her. Despite all of Carter's doubts the place still tickled some deep, dark recess of her mind somehow and one part of her was worried that Sasha might have been right and that everything she knew and thought of as fact was wrong or based on some kind of lie.

What was frustrating Carter even more was that she knew that a power source, either natural or artificial, was required to fix the Stargate and allow them to dial out. At the rate they were going the best power source around would be the energy burned by both of them wandering around the ruins. Despite all the knowledge she'd gained about the Stargate in the last year and a half there was a very good possibility that she'd end dying or stranded here on Kobol. If anyone even knew where they were it was a difficult task to get to them as only Robert Halhok had been able to dial the address, and that was with the holo-band prototype that they now possessed. The teams on Earth and Caprica would both still be trying to figure out a way to establish a successful connection to this planet. At the rate that both programs were going, it could be months until another human being arrived. Unfortunately the act of dialling the gate had been Halhok's last and the holo-band had fried his brain somehow; another task that neither of them thought was possible and something that they both didn't want to risk on themselves.

They had no other option than to search the ruins of the city for some evidence of advanced technology or some clue to allow them to use the Stargate. They had been here for a full day and two nights now. Carter had worked out that a full daily cycle was approximately 30 hours and 15 minutes on Kobol, something that Sasha completely overlooked. Coincidently the rotations of all Twelve Colonies occurred so that a day lasted 31 Earth hours, averaged out over seasonal variations. That was the only evidence to Carter that this was indeed Kobol and that there had been some kind of advanced race involved in the upbringing of the Colonial civilisation.

"Sam I need to rest," Sasha Alexandra said to Carter from behind, interrupting her thought process. Carter had been giving everything the quick once over as they had been plodding along the remnants of gaps between the ruins, the remnants of what must have been roads that had now been taken back by grass and some low density vine thickets. Sasha on the other hand had been over turning every rock and piece of movable rubble in the hopes of finding the mysteries of her Gods. Carter nodded her head, shrugged off her pack and sat down on a nearby piece of rubble while Sasha did the same. "Do you think we'll have any luck today?" Sasha asked her while pulling out some rations from her own pack.

"Honestly I doubt it," Carter.

"It doesn't sound like you think we'll find anything at all," Sasha replied.

"I'm finding it hard to see how these ruins come from an advanced civilisation," Carter replied, "they more look like ruins we have back on Earth of ancient Greek and Roman structures," she continued while pointing around her. It was true, the city that they were now in looked much like an abandoned Greek, Roman or even middle-eastern area that had been preserved for historical purposes on Earth. Carter was just about to continue when she spotted something in the distance in the gap between some of the ruins. "What's that?" she said to herself, causing Sasha to turn and look.

"I can't see anything," Sasha replied. Carter lent over to her backpack and got out a pair of standard issue binoculars and tried to find the structure under 50x magnification. With her bare eyes it had looked like a tower of some kind sticking up above the rest of the ruins. It was far in the distance and its peak only just rose above the surrounding ruins, making it barely visible. Carter didn't have any luck with seeing anything substantial from where she was so she climbed up on the nearest ruins to get a better vantage point.

Once standing on what remained of a half crumbled wall she had a better vantage point over the top of the surrounding structures. The structure clearly stuck out against the rest of the buildings and was, by Carter's estimate without using the binoculars, at least ten storeys tall. She looked to her left to see Sasha reaching the top of an adjacent wall to look also.

Carter's hopes drastically lifted after she zeroed in on the structure with her binoculars. It looked like some sort of pointed sky scraper that had a wide base with the structure narrowing as it got taller. It was intricately designed so the sides appeared like a concave bend. More importantly it looked like the entire structure was relatively unweathered and potentially made out of some kind of blue-grey metallic compound. Carter betted that if there was anything of use, it would be in that building.

"That's at least a day's walk, if not more," Sasha said to her. Carter tended to agree.

"Then we'd better get moving," she replied while lowering the binoculars.

**P3J-562**

Two days ago, General George Hammond had informed Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson that the Colonials were going to assemble a Raptor on a world close to P7J-989 (Alania) to establish contact with the Colonial and SGC teams on the planet. Now Jack and Dr. Jackson were standing on the exit ramp from the Stargate on P3J-562, the closest world they could find to Alania with a Stargate, looking at a group of a few dozen Colonials in what appeared to be some kind of controlled chaos. People with orange jumpsuits were walking around everywhere, some with tablet computers, some pushing some kind of mobile crane, and dozens hovering around a fleet of six Colonial Raptors that were sitting on the dirt next to the Stargate. To say that Jack O'Neill was impressed at the speed that the Colonial's mobilised would be an understatement.

"They don't mess around," Dr. Jackson said beside him. They quickly moved aside as more people emerged from the event horizon. They were a mixture of Colonial Marines, SG3 and SG5 and Colonial Intelligence Division operatives.

"No they don't," Jack responded while glancing over at someone who was approaching them. O'Neill almost didn't recognise the man as he was so used to seeing him in the formal Colonial Intelligence Division uniform.

"Hello Colonel O'Neill, Dr. Jackson," Aerisis said while shaking their hands. He was dressed in a green-grey Colonial combat uniform and even had a pistol strapped to his side.

"Aerisis. I didn't expect to see you here," Jack replied.

"I didn't expect to be here. But your request held a lot of weight with the higher ups who decided to re-task me and additional resources to this mission," Aerisis replied.

"Yeah obviously," O'Neill responded while waving his hand in the direction of the Raptors. "We don't need six Raptors and all this muscle do we?" O'Neill queried. He didn't mind having so much firepower at his disposal but it seemed to be a bit of overkill. From his general observations about the Colonials it seemed that it was how they operated; if it needed 3, they'd give it 10.

"We're heavily invested in Alania. Some of the decision makers got it in their heads that waking up the Alanian's was our fault. Plus we had a heavy presence there helping them to re-start their Colony and they were sharing a lot of information with us. We have some of our top researcher's there, and we want to get back in contact with them. Besides not all the Raptors are coming with us. Our two will go down to the surface of Alania. The others are there for backup in case something goes wrong but their primary objective is to complete a planetary scan and try to find some more of those Alanian colony domes," he replied.

"Fair enough then," Jack responded.

"Hopefully this mission will be a quick in and out. If I'm not back in a few hours I might miss the opening ceremony," Aerisis replied.

"Opening ceremony of what?" Jack heard Daniel ask.

"Our equivalent of your SGC called the Colonial Stargate Command (CSC)," he responded. This was a first to Jack, and he surmised that it was written all over his face. "Don't know if you had the chance to read the reports we sent through but we got ourselves and unlocked gate and built an entire facility around it. It's in the middle of an asteroid. I helped design the CSC operational protocol so it should be fitting that I attend the first passive reconnaissance mission through the gate. The higher ups have other ideas though," he explained. Before Daniel or Jack could even digest what he'd just said Aerisis interrupted their thoughts again, "Raptors are undergoing final checks now. We should be good to go in half an hour." He led them over to a large tent concealing a tactical table where he further informed them of the CSC and the details of this particular mission.

**One Hour Later - Raptor Reconnaissance Squadron – Orbit of P7J-989, Alania**

Four Goa'uld motherships hung in geosynchronous orbit above the planet's Stargate. Although the Raptor was drifting through space on reduced power causing the cabin to be almost black, Jack O'Neill could clearly see four Goa'uld motherships on the viewscreen of the Raptor.

"This is not good. Do you think they detected us?" the pilot asked, more turning to look at Jack and Daniel than anyone else.

"I don't know," Jack responded.

"I think they did. DRADIS contacts at extreme range. Small, Viper sized. Five of them with more entering range. They're fast and will be on us in a few minutes," the Electronic Countermeasures Officer said.

"Death gliders," Daniel said, echoing Jack's thoughts. Jack looked around to everyone else in the Raptor, including Aerisis and two Colonial Marines. The rest of the SG teams and Colonial Marines were spread amongst the other five Raptors.

"What weapons does this thing have?" Jack asked Aerisis who was beside him in the cargo compartment.

"All of the Raptors have two chain guns mounted under the wings. Four of the six Raptors have rocket packs installed," Aerisis said.

"Look. The enemy is going to be able to shoot at you long before you can shoot back. We need to get down to that planet now!" Jack exclaimed. There were a few moments of silence as everyone was stunned by the situation. Jack could tell that the Colonials were dwelling on whether to take his orders or not, simply because he was not one of them. It was made perfectly clear as Jack saw the pilot's eyes dart from looking at him, to Aerisis for confirmation. Without seeing Aerisis he guessed that it was given.

"Strap yourselves in back there, this is going to get bumpy," the pilot said, swinging around in her seat to face the front again. Jack quickly sat back down and pulled the straps fastened to the wall over his chest and locked himself in. For a few brief moments he could hear the engines spinning up before the entire Raptor was jolted by the thrust kicking in. The Alanian horizon quickly crept upwards through the front viewport of the Raptor until it was taking up the entire field of vision.

"They're firing," Jack heard the pilot say. He leaned forward as much as the restraints would allow him and could see golden energy bolts flying past them towards the planet. "These frackers can't aim."

"Raptor One to all Raptors. Evasive maneouvers," a voice crackled over the radio.

"Ha! Ya think!" The pilot exclaimed. "Paul. Start spinning up the FTL drive plot us a fracking jump out of here. Get up here on weapons targeting after that," the pilot also exclaimed to her ECO while keeping her eyes forward and jerking the Raptor in a spiralling pattern towards Alania. Moments later Jack could hear a slight peppering on the hull of the Raptor. It sounded like small meteorites hitting the ship.

"We just lost Raptor 4," Paul, the ECO stated. "Jump calculated. Three minutes until the FTL is spun up," Paul replied. He then went to move into the co-pilots chair but was knocked off his feet as the Raptor jerked suddenly to the side.

"That one was close," Jack heard the pilot say as another golden energy blast from a Death Glider sped past the cockpit.

"Take it easy! This isn't a Viper you know Starbuck," Paul replied to the pilot after recovering from his fall. For an instant there Jack was thinking that it was a very strange time for coffee, but then he remembered that the Colonials shouldn't know anything about the Earth coffee brand.

"Yeah well there weren't any Raptor pilots good enough for this mission. You know how the Fleet is now days. Only the best for these classified black ops ventures," the pilot, apparently called 'Starbuck' responded.

The next three minutes consisted of some of the most erratic flying Jack had ever seen. He was being being thrown about as much as the harnesses would allow by the pilots erratic flying which was seeming to be highly successful in keeping them from blowing up. Experience told Jack that this kind of flying would seem like chaos to the untrained eye, and was guessing that Daniel was far more panicked than Jack was. However Jack could see the methods in the madness. The pilot never made the same move twice, and even though the Raptor was apparently unmaneouverable it was still managing to avoid being shot down by the Death Gliders. The same could not be said for other Raptors though. Amidst the chaos occurring over the radio waves Jack could tell that at least two more of the six Raptors had been lost, and one was spiralling uncontrollably towards Alania.

"Ten seconds to jump," Paul exclaimed. As soon as the words had left his lips, the Raptor jerked around suddenly causing Jack to red-out for a few brief moments as the blood was moved from his body into his brain by the sudden and sheer G-forces of the manoeuvre just pulled. This caused his vision to be partially obscured by blood. Moments later when his vision returned Jack could see three death gliders coming straight for them, and tracer rounds spewing forth from the Raptor. He witnessed the beginnings of an explosion before his insides felt as if they were immediately placed on his exterior by the activation of the Colonial FTL drive.

**Colonial Stargate Command (CSC) – Asteroid Ulant Atani – Caprica-Tauron-Canceron system. **

Everything was prepared and ready to go. Natasha Higgins was standing at the back of the CSC control room as a mere observer as all of the commotion and pompous present. They were getting ready for the first activation of the Colonial Stargate and a large portion of the major players aware of this facility were present. She could see President Adar, a number of Fleet Admirals, and a number of high ranking officials from various civilian departments and intelligence services, as well as two members of the Quorum of Twelve.

"Here's to a new future for the Twelve Colonies," President Adar stated while raising his glass of ambrosia towards the thick armoured glass pane separating the control room from the gate room. As he did so Natasha could hear the first chevron engage on the Stargate although she could barely see it. She had been one of a team of fifty engineers helping to design the facility and oversee its construction. A large asteroid had been towed to its present location from the belt separating the inner system from two gas giants present in the outer system. From there mining machinery had been used to hollow out the centre of the asteroid to make room for the base itself. It also allowed them to establish a cover story of a new mining venture, which was eighty percent true and would explain the heavy space traffic and heavy equipment being transported to and from the asteroid.

From there the base had been constructed and all the lessons learned retrospectively from the Earth's Stargate records were implemented. It had required some of the finest engineering feats undertaken by the Colonials, but the facility was now almost invisible to anyone who was looking at it from a ship. There was just a small facility on the surface for receiving visitors. However the facility possessed a completely hidden space dock capable of receiving a ship up to the size of a Mercury Class Battlestar. The outer shell of the asteroid was used to cover the eight large doors which, if triggered, would open and reveal the space dock.

It was highly classified, even beyond Natasha's clearance, but she had managed to glimpse some of the plans one day. Apparently the asteroid had forty FTL generators installed around and through it accompanied by the most sophisticated computer system ever established by the Colonials. In theory the FTL drives could all be synchronised together to create one FTL field that would have been large enough to jump the entire asteroid. The computer system had to be able to synchronise the FTL drives to within a tiny fraction of a microsecond for that to be able to work, as well as manage all of the separate FTL fields.

As the chevrons engaged Natasha could feel that anticipation rise. Finally the room was bathed in blue as the Stargate activated. Everyone was too fascinated with the actual view of the Stargate itself to notice a small device slip down the sleeves of Natasha's sleeve and into her hand. Someone patted her on the back, startling her and causing her to jump.

"Good work Natasha. You were one of the ones to make this happen," her department supervisor said before moving onto the next person and saying almost the exact same thing. For a fleeting instant Natasha had thought that she'd been discovered and that someone had found out her real identity. As far as everyone knew, she was Natasha Higgins, raised on Virgon and who held a PhD in zero gravity engineering from Caprica University. However her real identity was Number Three, a Cylon infiltration agent that had been sent to rise to as much power or influence as she could to gather intelligence on the Colonial Military to be used in an overwhelming first strike in two and a half years' time. They were all given orders to not interfere, and to not act, before D-Day. She was about to disobey that order and hoped that she would be looked on favourably by her superiors, in hindsight for taking the initiative.

There would never be another opportunity like this, to cripple a program enacted by the Colonials that could give them a serious advantage over the Cylon nation. For decades the Cylons had not been able to determine what the strange metallic rings they had found on various planets in explored space were for. They hadn't been able to crack the code of how to work the devices and had thought that they had all been disabled or fallen into disrepair, whatever they were. The Cylons had only been able to work out that the strange metal the devices were constructed out of was a very good conductor of energy. So much so that it was able to enhance the power of the Cylons' nuclear weapons. Years ago they had found a small deposit of the mineral on one of the worlds core-wards of the Colonies in one of a series of fleet movements to surround the Colonials. They had then began to mine that mineral to use it to enhance the payload of their nuclear arsenal.

Natasha being one of the engineers in charge of coordinating the construction of this facility, was easily able to smuggle some nuclear weapons into the base. She was also able to procure some of the Stargate mineral from the Cylons' stockpiles in their fleet, albeit it was covertly so that the high command didn't know. Being in the position she was made it easy to lace small amounts of the Stargate compound through some of the metal superstructure of this base. Hence, when she pushed down on the button she now held in her hand, the effectiveness of the five nuclear devices she had hidden in the asteroid would drastically increase. When she downloaded into her new body she would be able to take all of the knowledge she had learned here of the Stargate with her to Cylon High Command and they would finally be able to start to use their own devices they had stored for safe keeping.

With the press of a button, Natahsa Higgin's world turned black for approximately twenty seconds, the time it took the subspace signal containing her consciousness to arrive at the nearest Resurrection Ship, approximately forty light years from Caprica.

To those awake in the early hours of the morning in Caprica City, a sun would suddenly erupt in the night sky. For those in the capital of Tauron, a second sun could be seen clearly in the day time. If the residents of Canceron looked up at the right time, they too would be able to see the explosion in the day time with their naked eyes. It was the largest explosion ever occurring in Colonial Space, and it also took with it half of the leadership of the United Colonial Government, including the President and all of his aides.

**Kobol**

They had moved swiftly through the ruins and were now standing at the base of the structure spotted a day earlier. It was constructed out of a blue-grey metallic compound and had strange carvings all over it. The structure was definitely round and the bottom levels looked much like the outside of a Roman Coliseum which gradually merged into a flat surface extending for nearly twelve storeys above.

What amazed Carter was that the facility didn't look too worn at all. The outside of it still looked relatively in-tact, except for large chunks that were missing from various sides of the superstructure. It looked to Carter like weapons damage.

They moved inside and were surprised to find that there were no doors, only curved archways separating the rooms of the ground floor from a vast foyer. The ceiling arched up almost in a perfect dome shape with the apex three stories above them. Everything in the foyer was constructed to allow natural light to penetrate through the archways that they had seen on the exterior of the structure allowing Carter and Sasha to easily see what was around them.

The inside of the structure did not fare as well as the outside. It was almost gutted as barely anything inside it was recognisable. After a few hours of searching, they finally found a stairwell and were surprised to see that it descended into subterranean levels as well as ascended into the structure above.

"Might as well start from the bottom and work our way up," Carter said. They had no idea where they were going as they both couldn't read any of the writing. Carter inferred that generators and other critical infrastructure for buildings were almost exclusively in the subterranean levels of Earth buildings, so they might get lucky with this one and find something. As they descended to the bottom floor and were surprised to see that soft, ambient lighting, switch on as they progressed, including in the room at the bottom of the stairwell.

"There's a power source somewhere," Sasha said. Carter just nodded in recognition. They were in a small room that had once had a very solid door separating it from the larger room beyond. However the door was clearly off its hinges and laying disfigured on the floor. From what Carter could see about the size and thickness of the door, it was meant to protect something in the room, but had been pried open by something.

"Come on, lets go," she said while walking past Sasha and into the greater room beyond. As they entered the next room, the lights gradually came on as well. Carter could not explain what she saw. The room stretched on for a few hundred metres, the right wall was featureless. The left wall however was comprised of a series of pod-like structures stretching from floor to ceiling. Each pod seemed to be a relatively large block of ice or an ice like substance, held in by a clear transparent plastic or glass material, with a slick metallic frame appearing to hold it all together. All up there must have been at least two hundred of them. A few metres in front of each pod there was a pedestal.

"They remind you of something?" Sasha asked.

"No, what?" Carter queried.

"If you squint your eyes so everything's blurry, the metal parts of the pods kind of look a bit, a small bit, like the pods the Alanian's stored themselves in," Sasha said. Carter looked at the pods again with new eyes and saw that Sasha was right. They did look vaguely similar, but that was probably just a coincidence. As they both approached the pods to get a closer look, Carter realised that there was a person in the middle of the ice like substance and was taken aback.

"This must be some kind of stasis," Carter said. She backed up a bit and looked to the pedestal in front of the second pod. "Here, what's this," Carter queried. The pedestal had a large rectangular indentation in it with what appeared to be a clear plastic substance over the top of an engraving. She needed Daniel in a time like this. Carter heard Sasha gasp beside her.

"I know what this says," Sasha said while looking at the pedestal next to Carter's. "It is the Colonial Common symbol for the Lord Aphrodite." Sasha moved to Carters and had a look at that one too. "I can't read this one," she said. Carter brushed off some of the dust from it. "It's Apollo!" Sasha exclaimed before moving to the next one. Carter missed what Sasha said as she was transfixed by the panel in front of her, the one that said Apollo. Moments after she touched it the clear plastic like substance in the panel began to transform. It was liquefying in front of Carter's eyes until it formed a substance a bit like runny jelly.

"Sasha," Carter called, seeing the Colonial scientist come back to her. After the liquification process was complete, the terminal lighted up. Carter went to put her hand in the substance…

…Her senses were instantly bombarded by noise and chaos. It felt as if she was enveloped by a loud roaring sound. Being a former pilot Carter instantly recognised the noise as a jet engine. As her mind slowly recovered from the shock of it Carter noticed that she not feel like herself at all and she had no control over her body. According to her she should not be walking, but yet she was.

After a few moments, Carter was able to take in her surroundings in more detail. It was daytime and she was in an urban area much like that found in first-world Earth. The major difference was that it seemed as if she was in the middle of a war. Rubble covered the street and three-four storey high apartment buildings were only left half standing, the rest of the buildings had collapsed in on themselves.

Before she knew what was happening though she unwantingly ducked down an alley and entered the back of a building. It wasn't until Carter opened the door to enter the building that she saw her hands were not her hands and her clothing was not her clothing. Her hands more resembled a male's and she had hairy arms. "This is not my body, and I am not in control," she thought.

Quickly, a little too quickly, she bounded up six flights of stairs to the top storey of the building. As soon as she got to the top of the stairway she could see people dressed in a strange, almost metallic cloth-like battle armour. They all stopped what they were doing and saluted. Carter's body waved their salutes down with a gesture before going right to the end of the hallway and entering the room on the right.

She was greeted with more of the same, before what looked like a high ranking official dressed in the same battle armour turned to her and saluted. He started to speak to her, and although Carter did not understand a word he was saying, somehow she did as well.

"_Apollo. Brigadier General of Caprican Advance Battalion 031,"_ the man said while saluting.

"You do not need to salute me. It is I who should salute you," Carter's body, the one she presumed was Apollo, replied.

"_I am glad my call got through to you and you have come. We and the Taruon Command have the Terran complex surrounded and have quelled all resistance. However they seem to possess some kind of energy barrier which Piconese bombers cannot penetrate, even with ongoing bombardment," _the man spoke. He turned and picked up a sheet of paper which remarkably showed video footage of a strange air fighter craft attacking an installation amidst the surrounding ruined landscape. Carter could feel anger rising in the body that she was supposedly inside of at the appearance of an energy shield which could clearly be seen on the video footage.

"_What resistance do you expect if we can breach the shield?"_ Apollo asked.

"_Some small numbers of guards. We also have heard a rumour that one of the Terran's Prometheus Council Members may be inside,"_ the Brigadier General responded.

"_If I can do something about the shield, I need your men to press on and capture as many alive as possible. The Thirteenth Tribe's soldiers have been led astray by Lord Iblis and the Terran Prometheus Council and there is hope that they can be saved. Remember we are trying to recover what was stolen from us and bring those responsible to justice, not exterminate the Terrans,"_ Apollo spoke to the Brigadier General.

"_Thank you Lord Apollo," _the Brigadier said.

"_No it is I who thank you. I need you to cease bombardment of the facility so I can get closer and disable the shield. Make sure that you communicate to all the Twelve Tribes that we are forever in your debt for what you are doing for us,"_ Apollo replied before turning and re-tracing his steps to the outside world. Carter was trying to digest what she was seeing. This must have been some kind of footage or record of historical events that she was seeing, albeit from the First Person. Her knowledge of Colonial history was limited at best, having not paid much attention to beyond what was immediately useful, but she could have sworn that Apollo was one of their 'Lords of Kobol' which seemed to fit with what she was seeing now.

She observed as this Apollo character snuck forward through wreckage laying on the street and the half collapsed buildings. In the distance, about one kilometre straight down the street, she could see the facility that they were targeting as it was the only thing left standing in one piece.

"If this is Kobol, it is not that much different to Earth, or the Colonies," Carter thought to herself as she and Apollo passed the wreckage of a burnt out tank. It looked much like modern-day tanks of Earth except it had two sets of three canons arranged in a triangular formation on the left and right side of the top part of the rotating chassis. Slowly they crept forward until Apollo saw a building that was relatively intact. They crept through the building until they reached the rooftop and Apollo had a clear line-of-sight to the targeted complex.

Carter saw herself / Apollo take out a small device that she could feel was strapped to her / his back. Once it was in her view she saw that it was a round cylinder, approximately twenty centimetres high. Once Apollo glided his thumb over a slightly elevated section of the cylinder, it began to expand and sections began to unfold. Carter watched the transformation, rapt in it as it should not have been possible to store that amount of material in that device. When the transformation was completed, Carter was surprised to see that the device had turned into, of all things, what appeared to be a bow without a drawstring or an arrow. Apollo moved his hand to where the drawstring should be and a beam of white energy formed in the shape of the drawstring. Another formed in the shape of an arrow, sitting perfectly on top of the hand that Apollo was using to hold the bow. Somehow it did not burn or hurt Apollo at all.

Apollo and Carter looked to the building. Carter was startled as her vision suddenly turned various shades of red. Apollo's red arm was still targeting the building with his, for lack of a better word, bow and arrow except that the energy drawstring and arrow now glowed a bright yellow. There was a yellow dome which was ebbing and flowing around the targeted building. There were distinct parts which were less yellow than others.

"It must be some kind of vision altering device he's using. The yellow dome must be the shield. This is amazing. How could this even conceivably work…." Carter began thinking before being drawn out of her thoughts as Apollo released one of these arrows towards one of the dimmer yellow areas. It travelled in a straight line for the few hundred metres separating Apollo from the building. It impacted the shield and the entire dome fluctuated and redistributed 'yellow' to the area of impact. Apollo then released another shot at the yet dimmer area of the shield, forcing it to collapse.

Carter's vision returned to normal, just in time to see the trail behind a rocket propelled grenade coming right for her and Apollo. Just as she was registering this thought, her world turned to black…

… and suddenly, still inside Apollo, she was standing on a riverbank overlooking the tranquil flow of a river. She was confused, hadn't Apollo just died from the strike of a rocket propelled grenade, or whatever was equivalent to that in ancient Kobolian times. Yet here they stood. Perhaps there was corruption in the recording that she was watching and it was not playing events linearly, or it was on a loop and she had just witnessed the end of the recording and it had reverted back to the beginning.

She noticed the other side of the river and that everything looked very blurry. From what she could tell there was a small rise obscuring their view from what was beyond. She got the sense that there was a vast, unexplored area past the rise and was drawn to it. She/Apollo entered the water and began to swim towards the other side. When they were half way there, her world reverted to black again for a few moments…

…Carter panicked as she opened her eyes and was standing upright and immersed in a glowing white liquid. Within instants it was draining from around her face and she was left nude inside a what appeared to be a plastic container. Reaching out and pushing the plastic lid of the container she saw that her hands were still that of Apollo's and that there was a woman standing there waiting for him.

"_Artemis why do you do this,"_ she heard Apollo speak and was aware that he was stark nude. Artemis just handed him a set of clothes. As he dressed she replied,

"_Because I am eager to know how you went, brother… and it is only a matter of days after you depart that you end up back here,"_ she replied.

"_Yes well that's because I actually put myself on the front lines and am not content to let the humans do most of the dying for us… As for how it went, it did not go so well. The Terrans have figured out how to reverse engineer our shielding technology. They can only make a weak shield now, but it is enough to withstand the attacks of the other twelve tribes,"_ Apollo explained as he was getting dressed.

"_What about our resurrection technology? Have you any news on progress in recovering that from the Terrans?"_ Artemis asked.

"_No. I perished amidst an attack on one of their research laboratories where we suspect the stolen technology is being held,"_ Apollo answered. This did not make any sense to Carter and it would not be until much later that she pieced together everything that was happening and that she was witnessing.

"_Speaking of resurrection technology…"_ Artemis began as she turned to walk out of the room. Carter then noticed that the room that they were in was the same room that Carter and Sasha were in when this had all began.

"_What?"_ Apollo replied following after her into some kind of elevator. In an instant they were moving upwards. Carter merely caught a glimpse of the foyer level through the clear glass doors of the elevator and it took her breath away. After that moment was gone they continued up until the top level. All of this took only a few seconds.

"_The Asgard are here. They have a revised proposal to offer us for trade of our resurrection technology,"_ Artemis responded, _"Zeus and Hera are in with them right now."_

"_I hope Zeus will tell them to shove it up what they have left of their over-engineered arse,"_ Apollo responded.

"_You may get to tell them yourself. Zeus would like both of us to be in the meeting as well,"_ Artemis said while opening a door immediately to the left of the elevator. Carter could feel Apollo wince as soon as the door opened and they stepped through but quickly his facial features burst into a fake smile. In front of them were two more people, who Carter surmised were Zeus and Hera, as well as a very strange looking, much taller, member of Thor's race that Carter had encountered before.

"_Heimdell. What brings you to Olympus Tower on such a fine day,"_ Carter heard Apollo say…

… before she was staring at her own hand inside a gel like substance in the panel that she had been at before. She stood there for a few moments gathering her own bearings. She looked up and could see what appeared to be the frozen being inside the pod, only just now putting together what she had witnessed, 'Apollo had died… and then come back alive in there…"

* * *

**Important Note: **Remember at the start of the story where I said that I have the right to change the mythos of both shows. Well I am going to elaborate on my interpretation of events on Kobol, based on evidence in the show, but the exodus from Kobol may have happened more than 2000 years ago (as reported in the show). I have not yet come up with a number, but it is longer than 2000 years, and whatever number I do come up with, I will try to work that into the 'timeline' of Stargate events.


	19. Chapter 19

**Authors notes: **Hi Guys – long time no update – sorry about that. Some things get put into motion this chapter. Also the 'teaser' found in the AN several chapters ago makes an appearance here.

**OOH CHAPTER 19**

**Unknown Planet – Deep Space**

A recent impact crater on a forested world would have looked remarkably out of place. Fires would have burned the vegetation around the impact zone, increasing the disturbance footprint thereby making the crater more noticeable. However in a desert region this was not the case, wind-blown sands quickly filling the indentation made on the planet.

What the Raptor team did not know was that these crater remnants that were quickly filling in with sand were not nearly as old as they appeared. The craters had been formed only in last few weeks by the bombardment of the surface by a series of Goa'uld motherships. This was all overlooked as the Colonial Raptor squadron descended through the atmosphere and headed towards the Stargate. This was the first habitable world the crew from the Pegasus' fleet had come across in weeks that did not have Goa'uld ships in orbit and also had a Stargate. They had been desperately searching for an available Stargate ever since they had been stranded in unknown space on the other side of the galaxy to their homeworlds. It would give them the ability to dial into Earth and report their status to the Colonial teams there.

The teams landed their series of three Raptors next to the Stargate while a wing of six Vipers maintained an active CAP above them to a radius of two hundred kilometres. With the amount of Goa'uld activity they had encountered in this region of space they were not taking any chances. As the team stood in front of the Stargate and began the dialling sequence they had no idea that there were a series of closed off-underground tunnels beneath them. Had they arrived only a week beforehand they would have been ambushed and escorted into these underground tunnels where they would have met a group of Goa'uld with a remarkably different philosophy than the rest of the system lords. However they had arrived too late and these group of Goa'uld had now evacuated from the planet and sealed up their network of underground tunnels. Without knowing this the desert around them was unremarkable. Therefore they immediately set up a perimeter and began to dial the gate to Earth.

**Nearby on the Planet**

Ja'ktur had given up wondering how he had shamed his first prime to be given a job such as this. It was long, tedious and was not an honourable task. Nevertheless he sat in the pilot's seat of the cloaked cargo ship that was parked only a hundred metres from this world's Chapp'ai. He had been ordered to wait here and observe the Chapp'ai just in case any of the Tok'ra came back to this planet, or if any more emerged from hiding to make an escape. The cloaking device of the cargo ship ensured that he was invisible to the naked eye while being able to have a clear view of the area surrounding the Chapp'ai.

He was roused from his slumber by a beep of the sensors. It took him a few moments to fully wake and realise that the beeping was not from his dream. As soon as he realised this he sat up straighter and got a closer look at the sensors. He could see two groups of several small ships in the upper atmosphere. One group was spread out in a wide circle around his current position while another group of several ships was heading straight for him.

"_I have been discovered,"_ Ja'ktur immediately thought. Although the cargo ship was cloaked it was rumoured that some of the System Lords, particularly Ra, had the ability to see through the cloaking and detect ships at close range. Since Ra's decline Ja'ktur had heard rumours of other System Lords fighting over Ra's legacy. Moments of this train of thought passed for Ja'ktur before he realised that the ships were of no configuration that the sensors recognised, and that they were most likely heading towards the Stargate. He rubbed his eyes to make sure that he was reading the sensors properly.

Minutes later he could see the ships descend in front of the Stargate, no more than forty or fifty metres from his own cloaked cargo ship. He was ready at the controls to pilot the ship away if it looked like he was to be discovered. It turned out that there was no need to as the occupants of the ships quickly disembarked and headed straight for the Chapp'ai. It was clear that these were no Tok'ra as their ships and dress looked completely foreign to him. Ja'ktur observed the set of coordinates that these newcomers pressed into the control device. As the last coordinate was input Ja'ktur experienced a surge of adrenalin. His First Prime had made them memorise those coordinates; they were the coordinates of the Tau'ri home world. This led Ja'ktur to the conclusion that the ships and people he could see in front of him were of the Tau'ri. The fact that they were here showed that they were in league with the Tok'ra. This was something his master _must_ know about. So it was with very little hesitation that Ja'ktur started the long-range communication device he was given for an event such as this.

**SGC – Earth**

"Sir we're receiving a video transmission," Walter said over his shoulder to General Hammond as they both stood in the Stargate Control Room watching the closed iris protecting the SGC from the occupants of incoming wormhole from an unknown origin.

"Put it up on the screen," Hammond replied. He was surprised to see someone who appeared to be in a Colonial uniform speaking on the video. Of course he could not directly understand what the person was saying as he had only picked up snippets of the Colonial's language. The video ended and replayed itself from the beginning.

"Translation is coming through now General," Walter said while turning to look at the General as well as a SGC linguistics officer who was now had permanently stationed in the control room for just this very purpose. The linguistic officer began to read:

"_This is Admiral Cain of the Colonial Battlestar Pegasus. We have become lost in deep space, location unknown, while on an exploratory mission near the Colonial Twelve Colonies. How this occurred, we are still trying to figure out. However we have had a hostile encounter with the Cylons and possess vital intelligence that must be returned to Command. The fleet appears to be deep within Goa'uld territory and are several hundred jumps from known space. We are asking to send a team through to report back to the Colonies, receive orders and to deliver supplies and personnel to our fleet," _she read.

"Where is this connection coming from Walter?" Hammond asked.

"We just plotted the incoming coordinates General. It is on the other side of the galaxy from us and the Twelve Colonies," he replied. "We're also receiving a Colonial GDO code sir."

"Very well. Send through a video reply and also a text translation," Hammond replied to both Walter and the Linguistics Officer. "Message begins: You are welcome to send your team Admiral. After all 'the journey of a thousand miles…'," Hammond said. He looked back to the officer who nodded that the message had been translated and was being sent. A few moments later, an audio transmission was returned through the gate from the apparent Colonial officer on the other side.

"Reply says 'begins with one step' General Hammond," the Linguistics Officer said to him directly. It was a code-saying that had been devised between the SGC and the Colonials as a second, un-official form of verification should they encounter each other's forces off-world. In this instance, it allowed General Hammond to know that the Colonial Officer was not under any duress and that there were no hostile forces threatening the Colonial Officers to open the Stargate.

"Open the iris Walter," Hammond replied. Moments later a team of seven people stepped through the Stargate, three of whom were armoured Colonial marines. The wormhole immediately disengaged afterwards, leaving the Colonial officers standing on the ramp. General Hammond turned to start down the stairwell at the rear of the Control Room that would take him down to the Gate Room when the Stargate began dialling again.

"Another unscheduled offworld activation," Walter said as klaxons began to blare out through the facility for the second time in only ten minutes. He watched as the Colonial team that had just come through moved down the ramp out of the way. The Gate Room marines resettled into their alert positions as the gate dialled.

"Receiving Master Bra'tac's GDO code sir," Walter said.

"Open the iris," Hammond replied without giving it a second thought. As soon as the iris opened multiple staff weapon blasts came through the event horizon in a haphazard fashion. One of the blasts struck one of the Colonial Officers who had retreated to the rear of the room while a number of others narrowly missed the bullet proof glass separating the Control Room from the Gate Room. Moments later Master Bra'tac as well as two other Jaffa warriors came through the event horizon. Bra'tac was carrying something over his shoulders while the other two Jaffa were firing back through the event horizon. "Close the iris! Get a medical team to the Gate Room," Hammond exclaimed to Walter before turning to go down there himself.

He was greeted with a sight of Bra'tac lying a woman down on the ground, whom he had been carrying over his shoulder.

"Master Bra'tac is everything alright?" Hammond asked the Jaffa warrior.

"I fear I bring unwelcome news Hammond of Texas. Apophis lives," he replied.

"How can that be? I thought that he perished with his ship in orbit?" Hammond queried, his mind starting to realise the implications of Apophis' continuing life.

"I'm afraid not. He escaped using the mothership's Chapp'ai," Bra'tac replied. "Once he had re-gathered his forces, he came to Chulak searching for Rya'c to use against Teal'c. People told him of the time when Teal'c came and took Rya'c back here to the home of the Tau'ri. We both know that Rya'c has been at the Colonial worlds ever since. Apophis, not knowing this, was enraged and began to attack the people of Chulak for disobeying him and not capturing the sholva on his behalf. I and my most trusted warriors searched for Teal'c's wife Drey'auc and escaped here," Bra'tac explained. Hammond looked down to the female that Bra'tac had placed on the floor, medics now coming to inspect her. She was semi-conscious and had bruises to multiple parts of her body.

"She'll get the best care we can give her. Teal'c is off-world right now at the Colonies with Rya'c. We'll get in touch with him and get them both back here immediately. Is there anything we can do for you?"

"We could use some rest," Bra'tac replied.

"Come with me and I'll get you and your men some quarters," Hammond replied. Hammond found them someone who could assign them some quarters and returned to the Control Room. "Walter, dial the Caprica gate," Hammond ordered.

"Connection established," Walter replied after a few moments allowing the gate to dial. As per protocol a video connection was established immediately with the Caprica gate room in the facility that they had constructed around the gate that SG1 had emerged from. Hammond could see that everything was not normal in the background with multiple people moving around quite urgently.

"Caprica SGC this is Hammond from Earth. We need to get in touch with Teal'c," he said. Fortunately the person on the other end had learned English and was becoming quite fluent.

"Acknowledged General Hammond. Unfortunately we're in a bit of a crisis right now. We will try to contact Teal'c as soon as we can but he is currently offworld. All inter-world traffic has been suspended for the time being," she replied with a strange accent, a result of the Colonial pronunciation.

"What's happened?" Hammond asked….

**Thirty Minutes Earlier – Surface of Tauron**

Teal'c and Rya'c were walking down the street of Tauron city taking in all of the sights. Ever since Rya'c had come to the Colonies on his first visit, he had chosen to stay. Teal'c and Bra'tac had taken him from Chulak and shown him the worlds of the Tauri's new ally. He was mightily impressed, especially from the group of people who called themselves Tauronese. They were a proud warrior race, much like the Jaffa. He had been training with a group of elite military personnel, under the close watch of Colonial and Earth SGC personnel, here for months. At first he doubted his choice as he was defying his God Apophis. No matter what Teal'c had told him about the Gods being false, he did not believe. Now, regardless of whether he believed whether Apophis and the rest of his kind were false gods or not, he did not agree with them. Supposedly they possessed the power to make their will occur in reality. Rya'c was raised in a good home with a good supply of food, which was all that a Jaffa could expect. Until he came here to the Colonies he did not know that there was another way to live, a free way to live, and that with many free people, a civilisation would develop… one such as the one that he now found himself immersed in. They had things that rivalled that of Apophis and that they had built themselves, for themselves. Once Rya'c had entered one of their 'orbital habitats' and seen the majesty housed within them he found himself asking 'Why can't we of Chulak have this? Why does Apophis not build these for us, his servants who die for him?'

"Is it true that the Colonials will be able to rid you of your symbiote?" Rya'c asked Teal'c as they walked down the main street. Unlike Earth where they had to cover up their symbols on their foreheads, here it was quite common. Many of the Tauronese marked their skin with ink and other markings for various reasons, whether that be to remember a fallen family member or purely for decoration. Many people commented on Teal'c's golden sigil of Apophis branded on his forehead whenever they were out in public.

"They believe so. Apparently they are close to figuring out how to accomplish this task. But they were also close many months ago," Teal'c replied. Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of a small, second sun in the sky, startling everyone and causing them all to look upwards. Moments later loud sirens rang out across the city.

"What is happening father?" Rya'c asked.

"I do not know. Come we must get back to the base," he replied, referring to the military base that Rya'c had been living at for the last few months.

**That same time – Orbit of Asteroid Ulant Atani / Colonial Stargate Command (CSC)**

Admiral William Adama was reviewing the latest maintenance logs for the Battlestar Zeus, his new command ship. They were holding a far orbit of the asteroid Ulant Atani, the home of the new Colonial SGC which had been built inside of it. According to the schedule it was about to start its opening ceremony with the President and many of the Quorum and Military advisory panel aboard. Afterwards they would come aboard for a tour of the Battlestar Zeus. The Zeus was to be the flagship for all missions outside the Cyrannus system. Adama's former command, the Battlestar Galactica drifted nearby. Its role was to be the test-dummy for all new technologies reverse engineered from whatever they found through the Stargate. The basic principal was that it would be tested and refined aboard the Galactica before manufactured for fleet wide use. Suddenly multiple beeps came from the DRADIS.

"What was that?" Adama asked. There should have been no more traffic around this area and the sound of something registering on the DRADIS was not a welcome one.

"Holy frack. Radiological alarm. Ulant Atani has just exploded. Multi-gigaton explosion," Gaeta, the DRADIS officer pronounced. "We have several large pieces of asteroid heading our way. ETA, one minute," he continued.

"Frack Me," Colonel Tigh, Adama's Executive Officer and second in command exclaimed. Ever since they had ventured out on the first mission beyond the red line, Tigh had managed to sober himself up. He now only drank occasionally. Adama was reminded of the man he once met not long after the Cylon war had ended.

"Load HP round in all batteries and target incoming fragments! Load all missile tubes as well. Fire when ready," Adama started.

"Launch all Vipers. Get them to start intercepting fragments heading towards the shipping lanes as well," Colonel Tigh ordered. Adama nodded at him in recognition, it was a good order as the shipping lanes were not close, but they were not that far away either. There was a considerable risk of asteroid fragments entering the lanes and causing untold damage to civilian and commercial traffic.

"Get Galactica on the horn and get them to contribute towards a defence perimeter," Adama also ordered. They had only minutes to establish a suppression barrage that would obliterate the larger fragments heading towards the two Battlestars. Adama's mind hadn't begun grappling with the implications of what they were currently dealing with. That could be saved for later. Right now he had to make sure his ship and the nearby civilians survived.

**Two Hours Later – Director Tynall's Office**

Director Tynall had experienced much better weeks than this. With the return of the supporting ships of the expeditionary fleet to Planet Delta, minus the Pegasus, Chryasor and Nightingale, it had been reported back that news from Planet Delta was almost the worst that they could have heard: an indirect, hostile, encounter with Cylon forces that had nuked the planet from orbit in a matter of minutes. Tynall trusted Cain to take the three Battlestars and investigate further, but he was not sure that she would not start a shooting match that would escalate into a full-scale war.

There was also the occupation of P7J-989, Alania, which had housed a sizeable Colonial contingent helping the locals to re-establish their civilisation after years in stasis. A combined Earth-Colonial reconnaissance mission had reported back Goa'uld ships in orbit.

The first activation of the Colonial's unlocked Stargate had caused the entire facility to explode, with most of the Colonial Command and elected officials on board. Thanks to the actions of Admiral Adama the surrounding space lanes had been saved from any major damage and the planetary defence grids had prevented any large pieces of asteroid from making planet-fall. People throughout the entire Twelve Colonies were panicked.

He did not think this week could get any worse until he opened the letter that had been placed on his desk with a large "For Eyes Only" printed on it. It was a letter from what little remained of the Office of the President, briefly and promptly informing him that all senior command staff of the Colonial Military and elected Quorum officials were either known to be on the Ulant Atani asteroid and presumed dead or were missing. It was currently being determined who was alive down the line of succession to determine the new Acting President and acting members of the Quorum. Until that time, he, as the most senior military official, was Acting Commander and Chief of all military forces. The letter also recommended that martial law be declared until the new government could be formed.

\\\\\

**Authors Notes: **To explain the 'timing' of this chapter – Apophis returns to Chulak to find Ry'ac. Several chapters ago, Bra'tac, Teal'c and Ry'ac visited the Aerilon orbital habitat so that Teal'c could undergo one of several examinations by the Colonials to remove the symbiote. Ry'ac decided to stay on the Colonies. Because Apophis can not find Ry'ac, he takes a little longer searching for him. Once not found he decides to punish Rey'auc to harm Teal'c, instead of his original plan (in canon) to brainwash Ry'ac. This then effectively puts the events of 2x08 'Family' sometime shortly (a week) after 'Tokra Part 1 & 2'.


	20. Chapter 20

**OOH CHAPTER 20**

**Battlestar Pegasus – Orbit of Former Tok'ra Homeworld**

It had now been two hours since they had sent a delegation through the Stargate on the planet below to Earth, but they hadn't heard anything back. Cain attributed it to bureaucracies everywhere, having to take forever to organise to do anything practical like organise trained and experienced personnel to come back through the Stargate and help them plot the fastest route back to the Colonies. Nevertheless she had been occupied with a sensors report on the planet below. The magnetic and geodetic sensors of the Pegasus, typically used to assess the gravity constant and geological makeup of a planet, had detected a strange pattern beneath the ground in close proximity to the Stargate. The pattern appeared to be a network of interlacing material that was denser than the surrounding rock type. The interpretation of the on-board astrogeologist was that it appeared that something had been injected into a series of tunnels or cavities below the surface to seal them up. How long ago couldn't be determined, it could have been days, or it could have been millennia. Regardless there had been something there, hiding beneath the surface of the planet. If only it wasn't now filled with this dense material that had been detected by the sensors they might have been able to go down and have a look. All thoughts of hidden caverns and Earth disappeared the moment that the DRADIS began to beep.

"Sir, we're detecting a spatial anomaly approximately 23 degrees from our Port-Bow, range ten-thousand kilometres," the sensors officer said, startled at the activity on DRADIS. Moments later the officer continued, "one large contact has just emerged from the spatial anomaly. Configuration is consistent with Goa'uld motherships encountered previously, Ha'tak class."

"Set Condition One throughout the fleet. Spin up our FTL drives and plot us a jump out of here," Cain immediately exclaimed. They would have to move on from this planet and dial into Earth again another time. Hopefully it would not be days until they reached another planet with a Stargate and no Goa'uld presence. Every habitable planet with a Stargate they had jumped to so far had a Goa'uld ship in orbit. So far they had managed to evade an encounter with the Goa'uld ships by staying out of their weapons range and jumping out of the system before a shot could be fired. It did not appear to be so this time. Ten thousand kilometres was very close.

"Get DC teams ready and get a firing solution of all available batteries on that ship," Belzen the XO also ordered, seeming to read Cain's thoughts.

"Load nukes in all missile tubes and get a targeting solution. Order the Nightingale and Chryasor to do likewise. If the Goa'uld ship opens fire, give them everything we've got," she also added. They were not going to be able to spin up the FTL drive fast enough to avoid shooting anything this time. "Get as much distance between us and the Goa'uld ship as possible," she also ordered.

"Put me on the line to the ships still in the atmosphere," Belzen said while picking up one of the handsets on the centre console of the CIC. After a curt nod from the communications officer he continued, "Viper Escort this is Pegasus Actual. Hit the burners and high-tail it back to the fleet. Raptors spin up your FTL drives and await jump coordinates. Hostile Goa'uld ship has just entered orbit."

"We're receiving a video transmission," the communications officer said.

"Put it up on this monitor and push the audio over CIC speakers. Make sure we have a translator that's programmed with Goa'uld," Cain responded. The translators were relatively old technology used throughout the Colonies for centuries before unification. They were used to translate between the various languages spoken on the twelve worlds before the common language became prevalent. They had proven effective at translating between Earth and Colonial personnel in recent months as well. For a number of weeks before the Pegasus fleet left the Colonies, some of the technicians had been working with Teal'c to place as much of the Goa'uld dialect into the translation matrices used by the Colonial devices. Hopefully it would work.

An image came up on the screen showing a man in his mid thirties with black hair. Only his head and shoulders were visible, but he was backed by a wall of what appeared to be solid gold. As he started speaking, the translator began to pick up scattered words.

"… B'aal… god… where from…. Tau'ri… destruction," was all that had been picked up by the translator. Cain assessed that he was not welcoming them with open arms.

"We did not know that this was your territory. We will leave immediately," Cain responded and waited for the translator to send the message back over the same frequency. As a response the Goa'uld's eyes flashed yellow and the transmission ceased.

"Shots fired. Near miss to the Nightingale. Goa'uld ship is launching fighters and transport sized craft," the sensors officer exclaimed.

"Signal the fleet. Weapons free," Cain responded. Within moments thousands of armour piercing rounds from the main batteries of the Mercury class Pegasus and Chryasor and Valkyrie class Battlestar Nightingale crossed the distance between the two fleets and began to impact on the Ha'tak's sheild, to very little effect except for a light-show. All of the Goa'uld fighters were instantly vaporised while the transport sized ships had a comparatively light shield and could withstand half a dozen hits from the main batteries of the Battlestars. However they too disintegrated in balls of fire just from the overwhelming amount of ordinance crossing the gap between the two fleets.

"Sir, weapons fire is having minimal to no effect. An energy shield is protecting the ship," the weapons officer stated.

"Enemy contact is now launching fighters and transports from the rear of the ship Admiral. They're circling around towards the Chryasor," the sensors officer stated.

Suddenly everyone was thrown off their feet as the ship violently jerked around them. Cain was lucky to not crack her skull open on the CIC Command table. Moments felt like hours as everyone re-adjusted themselves and got back to their posts.

"Direct hit from the Goa'uld mothership. We've lost a third of our dorsal batteries. Production and Agronomics are gone. Frack the Gods, the shot pierced a quarter of the way through the ship. All personnel quarters beneath Production and Agronomics have either been vaporised or are exposed to space," the damage control coordinator exclaimed. Luckily most of the personnel on board the Pegasus were at their stations and not in their bunks, otherwise the death toll would have been a lot worse.

"Send word to the fleet that the use of nuclear ordinance is authorised. Launch a full spread at that thing, all tubes," Cain shouted, hoping that someone would hear over the ringing in her ears and likely everyone else's.

This resulted in the launch of more than twenty nuclear missiles. They arced towards the Goa'uld mothership on a wide-angle trajectory to avoid the field of fire of the three Battlestars. A few missiles were intercepted by the Goa'uld ship's limited point defence turrents, but the majority impacted on various points on the shields within the space of two minutes. Still it seemed to have very little effect, the energy shields did not collapse and were still repelling the Battlestars' onslaught.

"Where the my FTL coordinates?" Cain exclaimed. It had seemed like ages and some part of Cain's mind knew that it hadn't been, but surely the FTL coordinates had been plotted by now and they could jump out of here.

"FTL coordinates calculated sir," someone yelled out to her.

"Distribute to the fleet and Raptors on the planet," she replied. Just before she was about to order the jump Cain could hear the Communications Officer speak up.

"Sir, Chryasor reports direct hit to her FTL drive and engine room. Primary energizer is still online but she's lost three-quarters of her thrust and most of her weapons systems. The enemy mothership has ceased fire on her. Attempts are being made to by several transports to unload boarders onto the ship in several places." Cain was just digesting that when the weapons officer also spoke up.

"Near miss. Partial hit to the Port flightpod of the Nightingale. Extensive damage. Significant losses expected to Viper and Raptor wings and maintenance abilities."

They could not take any more of this, at all. Yet she could not order the Pegasus and Nightingale to jump out and sacrifice the Chryasor. There was no time to evacuate her personnel onto the other Battlestars. It was the presence of boarders that made the decision for her.

"Launch half of our Raptor wing and order the Nightingale to do the same. Order all personnel on board the Chryasor to evacuate to the FTL rendezvous coordinates using their own as well as inbound Raptors. Another direct hit and we're done for, same with the Nightingale. We can't risk two Battlestars to save one… after Raptors have launched from Pegasus, jump the ship," Cain ordered.

**Thirty Minutes Later – Rendevous Coordinates**

The stream of Raptors coming from the scene of the recent battle had now slowed to just a trickle. Luckily by preliminary estimates, half of the crew of the Chryasor had survived and been rescued. Reports were coming back that the Goa'uld boarders on the ship were taking as many hostages as they could. Estimates placed those taken prisoner in the hundreds.

Over the rest of the fleet the news was also grim. The loss of the agronomics section would require Pegasus to regularly top up its air supply from either the Nightingale, skimming the atmosphere of worlds with a breathable atmosphere, or conversion of water or ice to its basic components, hydrogen and oxygen. The loss of the production section also meant that they would not be able to build new Vipers, Raptors or manufacture complex parts for maintenance purposes on the ship itself. Damage reports were still coming in and there was widespread structural damage to the ship meaning that it could not take many large jolts and any actions to replenish their air supply by skimming the atmosphere would likely result in increasing stress on the superstructure of the ship, enough to 'break its back' so to speak. There was also the large gaping hole on the dorsal side of the ship. The shot that had directly hit the Pegasus had burned right through the tough outer exterior and melted its way about a quarter of the way through the ship taking out the personnel quarters below production and agronomics. They could not survive another encounter with any Goa'uld ships, and yet they also could not survive with an over-populated and damaged _Pegasus_ and one less Battlestar. They had a long way to go yet. Thanks to the mission that had successfully established a Stargate connection with Earth, they were able to 'calibrate' their starmaps and obtain their exact location in the galaxy. The fleet now had a definitive route home. One that Cain had decided they would not start on quite yet. The reports from the people who had escaped from the Chryasor showed that the Goa'uld forces were attempting to capture the ship and as many hostages as possible. Most likely in order to try to access the computer memory and learn all intelligence that they could about the Colonials. After hearing these reports, Cain remembered that they had a Standard Operating Procedure on how to re-take a Colonial Battlestar from enemy forces, following the Cylons prevalence at boarding actions in the first war. It was time that they put this procedure to use.

**INTERLUDE - Kobol**

Sasha had viewed the 'memories' of Apollo after Carter and they agreed to try some of the other 'memory interfaces' in front of the line of stasis pods against the wall. None had worked apart from that belonging to Hecate, who, like Apollo, was experiencing visions in the time between life and death. Also similarly to Apollo, the memories only represented a disjointed, snippet in time of the former Lord of Kobol. Hectate's memories had shown her talking to Apollo and Artemis about the visions that they had been experiencing during their 'resurrection' process and the possibility that the visions indicated the beginnings of a corruption in the process.

They had both had to break from trying the remainder of the panels as more practical needs took over. They needed to find some food before the sun set, and then return to the building to shelter and sleep through the night.

Once they returned from their scavenging they began to examine other sections of the building. Eventually they had found what appeared to be some quarters, with a series of beds and everything. Despite this comfort, Sasha Alexandria had not been able to sleep for some time now. Her mind was racing with everything that she had seen in the 'memory banks' of Apollo and Hectate. It wasn't so much the _ events_ that she had witnessed, but the level of technology. She pulled the burned out holo-band and Stargate interface out of her bag and stared at it. She knew inside her that there was some kind of link between what they were trying to do with the holo-band prototype, the memory banks themselves, and what she had witnessed while experiencing those memories. She just couldn't put it together yet.

**Moon of Former Tok'ra Homeworld**

In a flash of light the Battlestar Pegasus appeared in orbit of the moon of the planet they had just fled. It was hoped that the moon would be able to mask her signature from the sensors of the Goa'uld Ha'tak ship still in orbit. A Raptor reconissance mission had shown that the Goa'uld were still carrying out boarding operations on the Battlestar Chryasor and that the Ha'tak hadn't come any closer to the ship.

Almost immediately after the appearance of the Pegasus, Vipers began to spew forth from her launch tubes. Dozens of Raptors also began to launch from each of her four landing pods. All of the ships began to move towards the Battlestar Chryasor to begin recovery efforts.

**Viper 06245B – Red Squadron**

"_This had better fracking work,"___Red Dog thought to himself. He could finally see the floating bulk of the Ha'tak in front of him and the crippled Chryasor. Ahead of him, Green squadron was engaging the first wave of Goa'uld fighters that had come to meet them as soon as they all appeared on the Goa'uld's sensors. Hopefully Green squadron would be able to keep the enemy fighters occupied, as Red Dog wouldn't be able to defend himself if any chose to pick on him. His Viper, as well as the others of Red Squadron, were not armed with their usual armour-piercing rounds. Instead they had a lower calibre round fitted, appropriate for their target.

"Your calculations better be right Red One," Red Dog said over the wireless as the Chryasor got bigger and bigger in his viewport.

"They are Red Dog. Shut the frack up and focus," Red One replied. Red Dog and the rest of Red Squadron were approaching the Chryasor in a single line formation, approximately two hundred and fifty metres between each of them. Red Dog watched as the viper head of his hit it's afterburners and increased the distance. Each of the Vipers in Red squadron were now on their final approach and had to increase the distance between them so they would not be crowded once their objective came around.

"Blue five to Red Squadron. Dorsal Port landing bay is clear for approach. Hostile forces inside the landing bay. Grouped at distance 45, 70 and 150 metres," Red One heard over the wireless.

"Copy that Blue Five. Red squadron on final approach," Red One replied. Red Dog was now only a few clicks from the Battlestar with Red One through Four directly ahead of him. Any time now Red One would be entering the landing bay.

"Red One, ten seconds," Red Dog heard over the wireless. That was the signal for when the relevant Viper was ten seconds out.

"Red Two, ten seconds," Red Dog heard a few moments later.

"Red Three, ten seconds."

"Red One clear."

"Red Four, ten seconds"

"Red Two clear."

"Red Three clear."

"Red Five, ten seconds," Red Dog said over the wireless as his Viper flew past the engines of the Chryasor, heading straight for the landing bay. He killed his main engines as they had done their work. Hopefully his trajectory was correct as he wouldn't have any time to actually maneouver his Viper, only time to take aim and fire. His Viper entered the landing bay and he hit his RCS thrusters to line his nose up with a group of Goa'uld clustered around one of their transports.

"Red Four clear."

"Red Six, ten seconds."

Red Dog unleased the rounds from his Viper's cannons. The few split seconds he had the Goa'uld in his sights was enough decimate them all as the Viper's rounds, lower calibre than the standard rounds to prevent doing excessive damage to the inside of the landing bay, were enough to pierce straight through the Goa'uld's armour and tear them to pieces. Before Red Dog knew it, his Viper had emerged from the other side of the landing bay.

"Red Five clear," he said into the wireless.

"Red Seven, ten seconds."

"Red Six clear," he heard only a few moments later as the Viper behind his finished its strafing run on the enemy forces inside the landing bay.

"Red Seven clear."

"Red One to Raptor Team Three. Dorsal Port landing bay is clear of hostiles. You are go for boarding actions," Red Dog heard Red One say over the wireless. Red Dog sighed, their mission, at least for now, was accomplished. It was now time to return to Pegasus to re-arm and enter the dog-fight with the Goa'uld fighters. He accelerated his Viper to catch up to the rest of Red Squadron.

"This is Pegasus Actual. Abort mission. All fighters to clear Chryasorairspace! Enemy mothership closing on Chryasor" Red Dog heard over the wireless. He watched his DRADIS as all of the Colonial ships on approach to the Chryasor scattered. Seconds later, the Chryasor was no longer registering on DRADIS. He followed the rest of the squadron in a wide banking arc so they could see what was happening. All he could see was the remnants of an explosion that ripped the the Chryasor to pieces.

"Did those Goa'uld just fire on their own people aboard the Chryasor?" Red six asked over the wireless.

"Looks like it. Return to base ASAP," Red One replied. They all hit the afterburners and returned to the Pegasus. The recovery of the Chryasor was obviously not going to happen.

**B'aal's Ha'tak – Orbit of former Tok'ra homeworld**

B'aal was more than pleased with himself. He had received word from a scout he had placed on this planet to watch for the return of the Tok'ra after his ships had bombarded the planet a few weeks ago, saying that there were ships that appeared to be from the Tau'ri in the sky. They had even dialled the Tau'ri's gate address, according to his scout. But B'aal knew from his own covert surveillance of the Tau'ri's homeworld that they did not possess any ships. Therefore the claim by his scout had piqued his interest and he came to investigate. When he arrived he was pleasantly surprised – the ships were as big as, if not bigger, than a Ha'tak mothership. He was worried that he had stumbled into something he couldn't control and would have to flee, until their ships opened fire and revealed their ineffective weapons and lack of shields. Analysis of the battle showed that if his own ships had lost their shields then it would have been another story, the enemy's explosive ballistic projectiles would have very quickly damaged his ship. Nevertheless those weapons were no use against his shields. The nuclear weapons though had decreased their strength by twenty percent, still not enough to worry about.

Upon capture of numerous hostages from the enemy ships he learned through torture that they hailed from a series of Twelve industrialised worlds on the outskirts of the galaxy. A decade ago B'aal had toyed with the idea of overtaking industrialised worlds throughout the galaxy, such as Earth and Langara, to drastically improve the quality and rate of production of weapons and ships for his empire. He had abandoned the plans when it just did not seem feasible enough because the industrialised worlds throughout the galaxy with a technology level low enough to not put up a decent fight were spread far and wide. He would not be able to control them easily. However Twelve industrialised worlds spread across three adjacent star systems would not present such a difficulty. From the display of their capabilities this day, it would be relatively easy to assemble a portion of his fleet and subjugate those worlds to his rule. He was so confident that he was heading back to his main fleet to ready them and head there within the next few days.


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's Notes: **Hi guys. Been too long since updates. Here is the next chapter. Thanks to Syphon01 for pointing out that a Viper / Raptor can fit through a Stargate (according to his/her calculations). I will be using that fact in the future.

Been a long time since updates… some stories that I read that are complex and have a long time between updates are a bit hard to follow, so I offer a brief summary below. Let me know if you like this approach and I'll do it every chapter… if not, I wont.

**Summary** /

- Pegasus Fleet got flung across the galaxy by the Nox, found a Stargate and sent a delegation to Earth/Colonies to provide an update. Got attacked by Ba'al's ships. Ba'al learns of Colonies and decides that 12 industrialised worlds will make very good slave planets.

- Bra'tac comes through the gate. Reveals that Apophis is still alive. Apophis wants revenge on Teal'c by taking his son. However Teal'c's son was taken and now lives on the Colonies. Teal'c visiting.

- Cater & Sasha Alexandria were on P3J-989/Alania. Had to flee off-world with experimental holo-band-Stargate interface after a Goa'uld invasion began. Got transported to Kobol by unknown means and experienced memories of Apollo, Lord of Kobol, stored in databanks of Lord of Kobol resurrection facilities. Experienced strange, dream-like, sequence with a river in between Apollo dying & being resurrected. Occurring sporadically in Lords of Kobol.

- Combined SGC/Colonial forces attempted to jump to Alania in Raptor squadron to rescue trapped Earth/Colonial forces on Alania. Got their ass handed to them by death gliders / Ha'tak in orbit.

- Colonial fleet dispatched to find Stargates that are not locked (only able to dial earth) like the one found on Caprica. Fleet returns with Stargates and Colonies set up their own Stargate facility inside an asteroid. Cylon sabotage results in the facility exploding, taking most of Colonial leadership with it. Director Tynall (Intelligence Division) is acting Commander in Chief until lines of succession can be determined and finalised and a new President declared.

**End Summary /**

**CHAPTER 21**

There was no real way to describe it. She felt sheer terror which was soon replaced by panic only to be replaced by terror again. Moments that she knew could be measured in fractions of a second, but seemed like minutes or more elapsed and the feeling began to pass. More and more astutely she knew that it had been a dream and now she was awaking. Feeling began to return to her body and her senses began to detect external stimuli. She could hear the chirping of the birds and feel a rough substance underneath her back. As her consciousness returned, synapses within her mind began to make more and more connections and she knew that she was lying on sand. She could hear water nearby and somewhere inside her knew it was a river.

At last, she had stopped dreaming and was back in this place; where it was calm, warm, inviting and she was at peace. Light began to bore through her eyelids as her world turned from pitch black to a dark shade of brown. For the first time that day, a resolute command emanated through her mind; Wake Up. As soon as that command had been given her eyes opened, her body moved and what last vestiges of consciousness that had eluded her returned. Her eyes opened and she saw blue sky, causing her to instantly squint. She slowly and groggily sat up and looked around. She was back; on the sand deposit beside the river. This was her home. She was intimately familiar with this place and had had many experiences here, although she could not recall any specifics at that direct moment.

Natasha Higgins stood up and took in the surrounding area. In her mind, the place was just as she remembered. If she took the time to analyse her thoughts a bit more though she would realise that it wasn't just as she remembered, because she could not remember the location specifically. Instead her mind had been bypassed with the sense that this place was familiar and warm, even though the direct memory of it would be wiped from her mind as soon as she left. She could not remember the sand deposit that she now found herself on, but she knew that she'd been there before. She knew that it had been deposited by the river as it flooded and dried up over thousands of years. It felt as if she had been there to witness each of those events since the beginning of time. Somewhere deep in her mind she knew that such feelings could not be true and did not make any logical sense, but those connections would never be made at this place.

Natasha heard something. It was a voice separate to hers, calling out her name. She turned around trying to find the source but could not see anyone.

"_Natasha,"_ she heard faintly again, as if delivered on the wind. She then saw something out of the corner of her eye – movement on the opposite bank of the river. As she looked closer she could see multiple figures moving and emerging onto the sand bar on the other side. They were holding out their arms as if welcoming her. Natasha felt compelled to go towards them. Slowly she took a few steps towards the water.

As soon as her foot touched the water the same feelings of panic, confusion and terror returned. In an instant she had gone from being warm and dry on the bank of the river, to being immersed underwater and unable to breathe. Something must have happened, or she must have missing memories. She knew that she was thrashing around, her limbs flailing underneath the river. She could not orientate herself and could not detect which way was up, towards oxygen and towards life. Then one of her limbs penetrated the water's surface and she could feel cool air against her skin. She then recognised that the area beneath her was solid and had purchase. She thrust her body out of the water, opened her eyes and took in a large mouthful of air. There was someone there, helping to pull her out. They were speaking to her in a soothing manner. It was not working. There was something wrong. She was no longer in the same place; that inner peace that she had felt at the river was gone; and so was the river. It ached her soul to be away from that place. It ached further to be in this sterile, cold and barren room. The room was cavernous, with cold, dark grey steel comprising its walls, floor and ceiling. She was utterly lost and did not want to be in this place.

Then a connection was made. This place seemed to be less and less unbearable. In what seemed to be an eternity within herself, the memory and feelings of the river were erased and her mind forgot the experience. New memories and pre-determined thought processes, based on historical experiences that she could specifically remember, activated within her brain. This was her identity. It coursed through her brain, infectious with its presence and erasing everything else. Within moments she had calmed and was herself. Natasha Higgins, otherwise known as one of the Cylon Model Number Three.

"What happened Natasha," she heard from her side. She turned to see John Cavil and another of her line staring down at her as she lay immersed in the translucent gel of the Cylon Resurrection Tank. Instantly Natasha remembered the asteroid, Ulant Atani, the Colonial Stargate Program, and her improvised plan to damage the Colonials. As these memories flooded her mind, she knew that it was standard practice to ask any resurrected Cylon what had happened. Even the presence of that question caused an involuntary response to complete the memory transfer and cement the latest events into the new mind that she now found herself within.

"It was amazing. I did good," she replied after a few moments, "I destroyed the Colonials new base. The President and his aides were all there."

"Ahh, I see. It was you who did that," Cavil responded.

"You know. How do you know?" Natasha replied.

"It's been three days my dear. The radiation put out in the explosion caused some, irregularities, in your code. It took us a while to recompile your signature," Cavil responded. Her mind raced. Of course, the Stargate element she had laced the superstructure of the facility with must have caused some interruption in her download signal.

"Then have we attacked? I did it so we could move the timeframe for the attack forward. With their leadership taken out, they will be in disarray. We can maximise our attack forces' effectiveness," Natasha said.

"Unfortunately you did not share your plan with the rest of us sister. We were not ready, nor expecting, your attack," the other Three model said.

"Besides. Your actions have had the opposite effect. The Colonial Fleet is on full readiness. Any attack now would be counter-productive," the Cavil said.

"Then I failed," Natasha responded.

"No. You need to tell us everything you learned about this Stargate of theirs," Cavil replied.

**One Day Later – Battlestar Pegasus**

Admiral Cain was walking through a wrecked ship, both structurally and in spirit. Everywhere she looked there were people who had dead eyes, who had been pushed past their limits and were still grasping at whatever sanity they had left. Most were from the destroyed Battlestar Chryasor. Cain could understand their confusion. In the span of a few months they had gone from normal duty rotations to being thrown across the galaxy to face aliens with untold power and technology. This technology had destroyed several decks with just one hit. This was a time of war and Cain expected her crew to hold it together, despite the extraordinary circumstances that they were in. Therefore Cain could expect no less of herself. That was why she kept her gaze level and walked with a confident stride through the hallways amongst the wounded and those without quarters. She briefly paused to acknowledge those who had time to stop and salute her through the hallways.

However Cain was not unaccompanied. She had several people hovering around her, providing the latest status updates. The most important of these people for the time being was Lieutenant Hable who was one of the surviving members of the Agronomics department.

"… so not only did we lose up to 80% of our oxygen recycling capacity, but since agronomics was the central hub of the gas distribution system across the ship, most of our reserves were lost when agronomics was hit. The gas was literally sucked from the distribution network once the central ventilation system was lost and the pipework was exposed to vaccum," he explained to Cain as they walked through the hallways.

"Cut to the chase Lieutenant," Cain said to him. "When do we need to top up our oxygen reserves?"

"I believe with the current loads of excess personnel on-board, we will have to perform atmospheric skimming within 48 hours to top up our reserves Admiral. And that's a maximum. The sooner the better as far as I'm concerned," Hable replied. That was not what Cain wanted to hear.

"Liaise with Astronomy and get them to start finding us a planet with a suitable atmosphere. Get them to contact CIC to make any decisions if necessary. Dismissed," Cain ordered Hable. Cain could see the door to the flight deck in front of her and ordered the rest of her entourage to leave her be. This was to be a relatively private conversation.

The flight pod was ordered chaos, as to be expected. Cain began to walk down to the far end of the flight deck. It was cordoned off with high-viz tape. Within the cordoned off section sat the Cylon Raider that had been captured from the debris field between the Cylon forces that had accompanied the Colonials to this side of the galaxy, and a Goa'uld mothership. Standing within the cordoned off area was the ship's Chief Medical Officer, several engineers as well as the Chief of the Deck.

"Admiral," the Chief of the Deck acknowledged. Cain nodded in response as she ducked under the tape cordoning off the area.

"Lets get started shall we… I would like to thank you for all coming here and taking time out of what many of you see to be more important tasks given recent events. As you know the Cylons fired on us before we were transported to this side of the galaxy. This indicates that they're willing to begin another conflict between us. We need intel on their capabilities to report back to high command when we find another Stargate. Although its not a priority for this ship or this fleet, it is a priority for the Twelve Colonies as a whole that we find out as much as we can about any Cylon advancements," Cain explained. "What have you found doctor?" Cain asked.

"It's like something from a fiction story Admiral. As you know the insides of the ship are biological. From what we can tell, these biological elements, or organs as we know them, are integrated into mechanical components and computer systems. Its almost like the ship is a hybrid of an organically grown being, and a computer system sir," the ships chief doctor responded quite enthusiastically.

"What does that mean for us?" Cain responded, failing to see what was making the doctor so excited.

"It means that the Raider is essentially an animal, whose habitat is space, and whose sole purpose is to fight Vipers and Battlestars. It will be a dangerous for our Viper pilots to go up against something that makes its home in space, sir," the Chief of the deck responded. Cain nodded in response.

"What about its armament and capabilities. Is it faster or more manoeuvrable than our Vipers?" Cain asked.

"From what we can tell, our Viper Mark Sevens should be faster. Manoeuvrability should be fairly equal if both ships are at similar velocities," the Chief responded.

"It carries a small fuel tank though. This leads to the conclusion that they're extremely fuel efficient sir," one of the engineers added.

"This Raider is armed with only a handful of missiles. However it seems to be capable of being armed with up to ten missiles at any one time, given the compact nature of the missiles that we removed from this one," the Chief added while pointing to a machinery cart alongside the Raider holding missiles, small by Colonial standards. "Doctor Kielbottom has an interesting theory on the firing mechanism though," the Chief added.

"Yes. The missiles are housed in the forward wings of the Raider. Internally though, these are tough muscle with a hell of a lot of nerves. It appears that the missiles are housed within a large vein like structure that can contract and expand in different areas to push the missiles towards a separate compartment that can be opened to zero oxygen and zero gravity. Judging by the size of the muscles, this could essentially make the Raider deploy all of its payload very quickly and efficiently," the doctor explained.

There were a few moments of silence from all of the engineers, the Chief and the ships head Doctor.

"Well, anything else?" Cain asked.

"I'm sorry sir, but that's about all we can tell. Everything else about the ship is too alien to us. We need to get this back to the Colonies and get some real experts to have a look at it," the Chief responded. Cain thought for a few moments. The ship looked like it might fit through a gate, but she couldn't be sure. Even if it did, after their last encounter, Cain did not want to spend too much time in orbit of a planet with a Stargate. The probabilities of encountering another Goa'uld mothership were just too high, and it would take a while to transport the Raider down to a planet and through the Stargate.

"Measure up the ship and see if it will fit through a Stargate," Cain ordered regardless. It would be beneficial to know that information if the other option in her mind was unachievable.

What they really needed was safe access to a Stargate. So far they hadn't had that. All the planets that they had jumped to with a Stargate had a sizeable Jaffa population, with orbiting or landed Goa'uld motherships at the planet. Safe access to a Stargate would only come if they had one on-board themselves. From the report that Cain had received so far, and her journeys around the ship, they needed one soon. They had too many wounded to deal with between the two Battlestars that they needed to offload.

Cain had an idea on how to take a Stargate for themselves, even on a hostile world. She just needed to have a chat with some of the tactical officers to see if it was even possible and to work out a few nuts and bolts in her plan.

"Dismissed. Return to your active duties. I'll see about getting us access to some more expertise," Cain said.

**Stargate Command – Earth**

Upon hearing that the Colonies' own Stargate Facility had exploded, taking most of the senior leadership with them, Earth had unilaterally offered their support in whatever they could. However there was not much that they could do. Everyone from the SGC who knew of the event knew that it was just a transitionary time for the Colonials. New leaders would be put in place, and the investigation into the cause of the explosion would be ongoing for months, if not years, to come. There was not much that an outside party could offer up in support, especially to a civilisation as diverse and with the resource base of the Colonies.

Instead the most useful thing that they could do was to carry on as normal. This resulted in a strategy session by the survivors of the mission to P3J-989 or Alania. There were considerable Colonial forces stranded on the now Goa'uld occupied planet, and valuable Earth assets there was well. This included Samantha Carter, one of the best minds that the SGC had access to regarding alien and Earth technologies. The planning session consisted of Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, George Hammond, Aerisis, one of the pilots from the Raptor mission, Kara Thrace, several Colonial Marine commanders as well as Mater Bra'tac.

So far, every probe that had been sent through the Stargate had been instantly destroyed. However one had been able to send back a few seconds of valuable imagery which showed the forces that the Goa'uld had guarding the Stargate. It was not good. There were a few dozen Jaffa surrounding the gate, some out in the open, several others were stationed behind barricades that they had erected. Also visible in the image on the projector screen in front of them were several large Jaffa staff cannon turrents aimed at the Stargate.

All parties in the room agreed that it would be a slaughter for any force sent through the Stargate to try and breach the Jaffa defences. Likewise the Raptor mission that they had sent from the nearby planet P3J-562 had failed, being intercepted by Goa'uld fighters launched from motherships in orbit. They were now searching for other possibilities to mount a rescue mission to the planet.

"… if you can get the Gate to somewhere that's open. I can fly a Viper through the gate at high speed, and level the surrounding area. The Jaffa wont even know what hit them," the pilot that Jack O'Neill had had during the Raptor Mission, Starbuck, said.

"We cannot get a Viper to the second Stargate at Area 51 Captain. It would have to be broken down into parts on your side of the gate, transported through, and then re-assembled at Area 51," Hammond responded.

"Yeah, that's no problem," Thrace responded.

"You're forgetting that once you make the initial attack, death gliders will be onto us within minutes," Jack responded. "They'll come down from their motherships in orbit and blow us all away."

"Well then we send a few Vipers," Thrace responded.

"And they'll send more Death Gliders," Jack replied. "What we need is an orbital presence to keep the Ha'tak's occupied while we mount a rescue mission."

"And we can't do that. Alania is just too far from the Colonies to mount any such mission," Aerisis replied to Jack. By now the conversation was getting fairly heated, as they'd all covered this ground before. To Daniel it seemed as if they were going around in circles.

"Wait!" Daniel exclaimed as he remembered something that happened earlier in the day. Everyone simmered down and looked at him expectantly. He got up and moved over towards the transparent Star Chart that they had in the SGC's conference room. It showed the location of Earth and the Colonies within the context of the wider galaxy. Daniel circled the location of P3J-989 or Alania. He then circled another location not too far from the planet. "That team from Pegasus that reported in and said that they'd been flung across the galaxy. Isn't this the location where they said they were?" Daniel said while pointing to the second location he circled on the star chart. He was referring to the delegation that had come through the Stargate from the Pegasus the day before. They had referred the team through to the Colonies so that they could directly report to their superiors. However they had no luck in re-establishing contact with the Pegasus. It had appeared that the ship had moved from orbit of the planet that they had originally sent their delegation from.

The location that Pegasus had reported from had attracted the attention of Aerisis, who had now stood up and moved from the conference table to have a closer look at the star chart that Daniel was looking at. He looked at the starchart and did some rough calculations in his head.

"That location is only twenty to thirty jumps away from Alania. If we could contact the Pegasus fleet and re-direct them there, we would be able to coordinate a combined orbital and Stargate attack on the planet," Aerisis exclaimed. That was exactly what Daniel had been aiming for when he had placed the locations on the starchart.

"The problem is going to be contacting the Pegasus. We have no idea what happened to her, and if the fleet moved, where they moved to," one of the Colonial technicians said.

"We'll just have to dial up all the Stargates in the area and try to make contact with communications," Hammond responded.

Jack was finally feeling like they were making progress towards this situation now. He wanted his team back together. Teal'c was on his way back from the Colonies with Ry'ac. He had been on Tauron when the Colonial Stargate Command had exploded. The aftermath was keeping all non-priority inter-planetary traffic at a standstill. However apparently Teal'c was priority traffic and the team at the Caprica gate facility had advised them several hours ago that Teal'c was on his way. If they could just pull this off, they would have Carter back and SG1 would be whole again.

**Kobol**

What Jack O'Neill and anyone from Earth and the Colonies did not know was that Carter was not on P3J-989. She was stranded on the surface of Kobol with Sasha Alexandria. They had awoken from the best sleep they had been able to get for a few days now. The quarters that they had found had been wondrous, and Carter swore that the bed she had slept on had been the most comfortable yet.

The day before they had found what appeared to be damaged memory banks of some of the Lords of Kobol. From what Carter had seen, these Lords of Kobol appeared to be a very advanced race when they were in their prime and were capable of capturing and downloading their consciousness into a new body upon death. It was true immortality, something that almost everyone yearned for. What concerned Cater were the pieces that were missing. These beings were now extinct. What had happened to them to cause them to cease to exist in the universe? They were just some of the questions that Carter would have to ponder another day. At the moment their most pressing concern was finding a power source to active at the Stargate and get themselves home.

Carter and Sasha left the quarters that they had discovered and began their search again. Most of the building was without power, so despite it being day time, they were searching the dark hallways with torches. It was not long before Carter stopped in her tracks. She was looking at writing of the Lords of Kobol engraved on the wall of the hallway containing their quarters.

"Sasha," she exclaimed while reaching over and prodding her.

"What?" Sasha responded while turning to look at what Carter's torch beam was pointing at. It was simple enough. It was writing on the wall that gave directions, much like a shopping centre index. That was to be expected. What Carter did not anticipate was that she could read it, word for word.

"Can you read that like I can?" Carter asked her.

"Yes I can… but how?" Sasha replied. Only half of Carter's mind was listening to Sasha, the other half was concentrating on reading the directions on the sign. There were some interesting things on that list, such as _Resurrection Hub; Atrium; Quarters; Weapons Store; Research and Development; Ship Controls_.

"It must be from the memories we looked at yesterday. They must have been more than recordings. They must have downloaded some information into our heads," Carter responded.

"It's possible. Logically it's the next step that we'd look at taking with the holo-band technology once we got the machine interface up and running," Sasha responded. It was only then that Carter noticed something else as well. She had understood Sasha's natural speech and didn't have to wait for it to come out again through the Colonial translator attached to her shoulder.

"Sasha, I can understand you," Carter responded.

"What. Wait, I can understand you as well," Sasha responded while reaching over and turning her translator off. "Wait, do you see that?" Sasha said, her attention re-diverted to the sign.

"No, what's that," Carter responded. Sasha waved her torch around at the list of directions.

"About three quarters of the way down. See that sign there. The one that says 'Stargate Control Room'?"

Carter saw it as soon as Sasha said it. Instantly, their chances of getting home had increased exponentially.

**Colonial Intelligence Division **

Director Tynall had slept for about three hours in the last three days. He was dealing with crisis after crisis after the explosion of the asteroid Ulant Atani. People were scared and most thought that the Cylons wre returning and had launched a pre-emptive strike against a secret Colonial facility. The problem was that there was not much that Tynall could do to dispute that. A secret facility had exploded, and he could not say what it was for, only that it was classified. That got all of the conspiracy theorists that called themselves newscasters going, which only made the situation far, far worse. The worst yet was a video transmission from one of the Colonies' most wanted, Tom Zarek, claiming that the entire Colonial Government was incapable and was going to launch us all into annihilation at the hands of the Cylons by provocation.

Currently there were hundreds of advisors and analysts doing what they could to speed up the plans that the recently departed President Adar had made to reveal the existence of the Stargate and Earth to the public. However Tynall doubted that the revelation would do much to calm the public across all Twelve Worlds. To them it would look like the government were wholly incompetent; a few months after finding out about the situation in the wider galaxy, and the first facility dedicated to exploring this new frontier explodes, taking most of the heads of power with it. It would probably lead to a civil uprising, especially with people like Tom Zarek nurturing and encouraging these thoughts through the public sphere.

"Sir, I have the team from Pegasus waiting for you. You said you'd be with them an hour ago," his aide said as she poked her head into the door.

"Pegasus? Is the fleet back already?" Tynall queried.

"No sir. I sent you a vmail updating you on the situation yesterday. They have sent a delegation through Earth's Stargate to give you a vital update," his aide responded. "The team insists that its quite urgent."

"Very well. Where are they?" he asked.

"Meeting room seven," his aide replied. Tynall got up from behind his desk and made his way down the hall to meet the officers from the Pegasus.

After hearing their story, Tynall's day had gone from bad to worse. The Pegasus had been fired upon by Cylons before being thrown across the galaxy by an unknown alien race with some kind of cryptic warning. From what they had been able to tell, the Cylon forces that had engaged them had also been flung to the same location of space. The officers from Pegasus were very clear – the Cylons had fired first. To Tynall, this signalled their intention of war. It was then his choice, as Acting Commander in Chief of the Colonial Fleet, what response to make next. One that he could not make lightly.

However there were two important facts that Tynall, or any Colonial citizen, did not know. The first was that the Cylons had found something on Planet Delta, something Kobolian in origin, that had pointed them in the same direction that the Pegasus Fleet had been moving – apparently towards one of the occupied worlds of these Nox. What the Cylons had found on Planet Delta had been so ground-breaking to their understanding of the universe, that they could not allow the Colonials to access this, or more, on the system that they had both emerged into and began their firefight. It was not a declaration of war that the Cylons made by firing on the Colonial Fleet. It was an act of deterrence; to protect humanity from discovering what the Cylons had.

The second fact to elude Tynall was that in that very hour, dozens of cloaked Goa'uld cargo ships entered hyperspace. They were a reconissance force for the Goa'uld Ba'al. The ships had been cloaked in Colonial space for the last six hours collecting information. The cargo ships were all leaving the Colonial system to report back to the Goa'uld invasion fleet that was currently inbound, and not more than a day away.

/

**Authors Notes: **As Just a Crazy-Man said in the reviews "The war comes to the Colonies"… next chapter!


	22. Chapter 22

**Authors Notes: **Massive update! 11,250 words. As you recall, at the start of this story, I separated the Twelve Colonies into 3 star systems.

This is the first of many chapters dealing with the first attack on the Colonies by the Goa'uld. I originally wanted to do ONE chapter for the Cyrannus A system, one for Cyrannus B, one for Cyrannus C… but that did not work. Hence, this chapter is only HALF of the Cyrannus A battle(s).

This is a first draft- haven't read through properly yet. Revised version might come… but we're all in this for the content, and its not written too badly!

**Chapter 22**

_**Attack on the Colonies – Part 1A; **_**Caprica – Tauron – Canceron System (Cyrannus Alpha)**

**Caprica Station**

Selucia thought that the room she was in had one of the best views in all of the Colonies. Three of four walls as well as the ceiling were made of transparent glass providing the room's inhaitants an almost uninhibited vista of Space. Lighting was provided by soft glow lights along the floor and along the edges of the twenty person table sitting in the middle of the room. Stretching out from the view from the third wall, one could look back along the commercial arm of Caprica Station and could see its main axis, running at a right angle to the 300m long lateral extension of the station. The mining arm extended out from the main axis at ninety degrees to the commercial arm which they now found themselves in.

Selucia conceded that when compared to the views that you could get at the Aerilon orbital habitats, or from the Scorpion moons, the view from Meeting Room 016A left a little to be desired. The difference that made the view from the Caprica Station meeting room was that everything visible around the station was partially under Selucia's control. She was one of the Managing Directors of Caprica Station, the main hub of commerce in all of the Colonies. It was her duty to ensure that operations at the station kept running smoothly, for if they didn't millions, if not billions, of cubits could be lost. Needless to say that her job was high pressure in the best of times, and mistakes could, and have, cost her career dearly in the past. She had once been one of only a handful of candidates to be the first Commander of the Battlestar Mercury, the first in the line of the behemoths that were now starting to comprise the Colonial Fleet. However a mishap with her Command at the time, a slight collision between the Battlestar Diaspora and Caprica Station during docking procedures, halted all of that. As a result she had been 'shifted sideways', and in an ironic turn of events, had been appointed as the Managing Director of Caprica Station who was from the Colonial Fleet; the other managing directors from various other arms of the Government.

Selucia snapped herself out of her daydream and brought her attention back into the room. Only seconds after she had tuned herself back into the conversation did she wonder whether it was worth it going back to quiet reflection. It was not her fault that she could not stand lawyers, retched as they were. It was all worthwhile though, just one step in an everlasting process. She needed to hear what the proposal by SpaceTech was so that the design of the first Space Elevator in the Colonies would not hamper the operations of Caprica Station, even though on paper it was meant to greatly enhance efficiency. Selucia could not get the image out of her head of the one-thousand click long nano-tube fibrous cord dangling from Caprica Station to the planet below, and pulling the entire station down into orbit. She knew that it would not, and could not, happen, but it was an image stuck in her head nonetheless. Selucia conceded that even if it did happen, it wouldn't be on her watch; she was planning to have regained some of her reputation and be back commanding Battlestars by the time the space elevator was finished, in ten years time.

"I think that's it," the Colonial Fleet lawyer said. Selucia was lucky, there were two Colonial Fleet, Caprica Government, and private lawyers, as well as the Commerical Managing Director of Caprica Station on her side. She just had to look pretty and answer any technical questions and ensure that the Fleet's interests were heard.

"Great. If you could forward the revised contract to our office, and we'll arrange for signing," the SpaceTech lawyer replied. Just as soon as things looked like they were wrapping up, three large chimes came over the intercom system. Selucia immediately thought that it was unusual, as the intercom system was turned off in the meeting rooms.

"Urgent message for Director Selucia James, please report immediately to Communications and Sensors. Selucia James, please report immediately to Communications and Sensors," the female voice said over the station-wide announcement system.

"Well gentlemen, ladies, it seems I'm needed elsewhere. If you would pardon my absence. If I do not return by the end of the meeting, I will catch up with Ronald later," Selucia said, referring to the Commercial Managing Director. With relief she got up and left the room and began to head down the myriad of corridors which would eventually lead her to the internal cart system used for getting around differing areas of the station quickly.

The closer Selucia got to the central axis of the station, the more hurried and determined everyone seemed to appear. It was not immediately obvious, but once Selucia noticed it, it was there. She just thought that her mind was playing tricks on her until a group of Colonial Fleet Raptor Jocks jogged past her in full flight gear. Although she was still in the Commercial Arm and not the military arm, there were still Fleet personnel situated and housed at various points around the station. Immediately, Seleucia picked up her pace.

Communications and Sensors was one of several nexi located in the middle of the station. It was a large room housing dozens of analysts and communications officers behind rows of computer terminals and stations. Once Selucia entered the nexus, she made her way over to the Area Manager, who was busier than he should have been. Upon recognising Selucia he immediately disengaged from the conversation he was having with an analyst and made his way over to her.

"Director James, I'm glad you're here," he said.

"What's going on Robert? It's a bit busier than it should be," Selucia replied.

"Ahh, three issues, which might all be related," the Area Manager, Robert, responded. He paused for a few moments.

"Well, out with it," Selucia prompted.

"Well the first is that there are five contacts at the periphery of the Alpha system. They appeared from nowhere and are on an elliptical approach into the inner system along the elliptical plane. Current course estimations place three of the objects in High Orbit above Caprica in one hour, and the other two in Low Orbit above Tauron in one and a half. The objects are approximately eight light-minutes from us. As far as we can tell, they're not transmitting IFFs and are not responding to attempts at communication," Robert began explaining.

"What? Show me," Selucia responded, gesturing towards the nearest console. Robert just beckoned to the far wall which had a wall sized screen showing the DRADIS plot of the entire system. Selucia looked at the DRADIS and saw the red swarm at the edge of the display, along with a continually updating course projection. Images were just now being put up along the right-hand side of the screen. They showed large pyramids surrounded by superstructure, appearing to move on some kind of inertia alone. She turned to Robert to begin to ask some more questions, but she was interrupted before ever getting the chance.

"The second is that all Colonial Fleet Units have been ordered to Alert Condition Two. Central Command have ordered Battlestars Ripley and Prometheus to launch from the station in ten minutes. Central Command have also requested that StratNet be engaged," Robert said. This was not good news to Selucia, and told her that the higher-ups in the Colonial Fleet knew something that the rest of them didn't. Furthermore, StratNet, the system to allow the Colonial Fleet to communicate with all situation rooms, briefing rooms, pilots quarters and docked Colonial Fleet assets independently of Caprica Station, had never been activated outside of training programmes.

"Frack, they know something," Selucia responded. As she watched the main DRADIS display on the far wall, she could see the icons BSG46 patrolling the outer system change. In real time, or as close to real-time as was possible when it would take seven minutes for DRADIS signals to reach BSG46 and then another seven for the signals to bounce back to Caprica Staiton, a preliminary course for BSG46 was plotted that put the Battlestar Group on an intercept course with the unknown contacts.

"Frackers," Selucia said. "BSG46 was issued with orders from Fleet Command to intercept the contacts fifteen minutes ago. Yet we still haven't heard a peep," Selucia exclaimed. Those gods-damned fracks in Fleet Command were just looking for any chance to screw her over, and this was just another expression of the constant reminders she got about _the incident_ that landed her here in the first place.

"That's the third point," Robert said to her, causing Selucia to calm down immediately, "You have a priority, eyes and ears only communications request from Tynall himself."

"Tynall?" Selucia responded. She was surprised that Tynall would lower himself to talking to her. After all he was the one that handed out her demotion in the first place.

"Yes sir," Robert replied.

"Thanks Robert. Get your top technician to CIC to coordinate between the command staff and sensors here. I don't have a good feeling about this," Selucia ordered before turning to leave. She was headed for her private quarters in the central nexus of Caprica Station. It was the only place that she was authorised to make or take a secure call.

**Colonial Fleet Command, Caprica – Director Tynall's Office**

The last week had been the most challenging week in Director Tynall's life. The past series of events had occurred and were completely out of his, or Colonial control. They were no further in understanding how or why the asteroid Ulant Atani had exploded, and now Pegasus and her fleet was somewhere on the other side of the galaxy.

They had only discovered their place in the wider galaxy six months ago. In that time, they had been taught by Earth's SGC that the worst thing they could encounter was a Goa'uld mothership. Now the forward DRADIS arrays around Cyrannus Alpha indicated the potential for five of them approaching the inner system. Already the enemy ships were within distance to strike at some of the largest asteroid mining operations in the local area. Surprisingly they moved on, ignoring the installations and the minor civilian traffic in the immediate area.

No one had any idea why the Goa'uld ships were here. But the whys of it didn't matter; they were here nonetheless. It seemed as if the Lords of Kobol had decided to stack everything against the Colonials in the last week; there was just too much happening against them to be of any mere coincidence.

Worst of all, Tynall had to tell the President Elect of all of this at some stage. He was the Economic Advisor, twenty-fourth down the line of succession to the Presidency, and he had no knowledge of the Stargate or recent events that had transpired. But this was not the place to play politics or scurry to the whims of political candidates; they had a mere two hours until the Goa'uld ships would be within striking distance of Caprica and Tauron. That timeframe gave them a chance. Picking up the phone, Tynall ordered his second in command to issue the order for the President Elect, and all chief advisors, to be secretly moved to 'Safe Haven', the centralised command bunker one hundred metres beneath Caprica City. Issuing this order would require that he too was moved to Safe Haven, yet he could not see how he could organise anything from there. He knew that minutes after issuing the order, Raptors would be launching toward Colonial Fleet HQ, the Presidential Palace as well as the offices of half a dozen chief advisors and people in key positions, the majority of which were new to their jobs and had been promoted after the people filling the original positions had been wiped out in the explosion of the Ulant Atani asteroid.

As an afterthought, Tynall presumed that this turn of events would rapidly accelerate the late President Adar's plans for public disclosure of the Stargate. There was no way that they would be able to cover up six golden pyramid ships floating through the outer system. They could say that they were some kind of prototype ship, but that plausibility of that cover story was very low.

He could not fathom what these Goa'uld wanted. If they were launching an attack, they could have jumped in a lot closer to the main Colonies rather than parading in from the outer system. But then he remembered the intelligence briefings forwarded on from Earth – the Goa'uld's tactics seemed to be more targeted towards intimidation than efficiency; and it was working. Without firing a shot or sending any kind of communication, they had the whole building in an uproar; all of the analysts, strategists and Generals were running around in a panic trying to start to organise a defence. Tynall stepped out of his office into the madness of the top floor of the Colonial Fleet HQ in Caprica City. The place was looking like a madhouse. He couldn't fathom what the floors below were like, since this top floor was the only one who knew about the Stargate and recent developments; the only one that knew what they were facing. It was time to organise this chaos and start a coordinated defence.

"Jamal," Tynall said to one of the communications staff nearest his office, while beckoning for him to come and approach him. Jamal was the official liaison officer between the Stargate Facility inside Irradiated Zone 32 and the Director of the Colonial Fleet; Tynall in this instance. "I need you to put together an information package on the Stargate, and more importantly, everything we know about the Goa'uld and their space capabilities. Once you have that package together, forward it to all A2 officers and above in-system. Organise Courier Raptors to send the package to Fleet forces in Cyrannus Beta and Charlie. Inform them to be ready to jump into the system should we need reinforcements," Tynall ordered. Courier Raptors were needed to transmit any high-priority messages between the three Colonial Systems, as any transmissions would take ten hours to reach Cyrannus Beta, or fifteen hours to reach Cyrannus Charlie.

Tynall dismissed Jamal and walked over to Great Admiral Reed's office. Great Admiral Reed was in charge of all Colonial Fleet deployments in the system, and had an equivalent counterpart in Great Admiral Henderson and Great Admiral Baker in the Cyrannus Beta and Charlie systems. Great Admiral Reed had been in charge of BSG 02 leading the defence of Caprica during the closing battles of the Cylon War. She was one of the last remaining high-level command officers that served during the war, and her input and advice was invaluable.

"Reed, what assets do we have in the vicinity of the unidentified contacts?" Tynall asked as soon as he walked into her office. There was a large electronic display taking up one entire wall of her office, showing the disposition of all Colonial assets in the Cyrannus Alphas system. Painted red were the six Goa'uld contacts that were steadily making their way into the system.

In many ways he did not like to issue orders to her, as in Tynall's mind, she was far superior to him in terms of skill and experience. Instead he liked to view her as an asset that he could use and guide so that she was coordinated with other elements of the Colonial Fleet and Defence Forces.

"Battlestar Group 46, consisting of two Columbia Class Battelstars and four destroyers, plus Battlestar Group 81, consisting of the Mercury Class _Hoplite_ plus two Valkyrie Class Battlestars and escorts," Great Admiral Reed responded.

"Can we order them to plot an intercept course with the unknown contacts. Engagement rules will be Condition One, but to engage with maximum force, only after being fired upon. Warning shots are authorised," Tynall said.

"Given the unknown power of the Goa'uld ships, I'd also order the Battlestar Zeus and Galactica to jump into a secondary position to reinforce Group Thirteen and Eighty-One. Adama's the most senior officer in the field who's known about this the longest. He'll be able to provide timely advice and support," Reed commented. That was what Tynall loved about Reed, she was invaluable with her advice, and it was always advice that you could not say no to.

"Very well. Can you issue the order?"

"Yes sir," Reed responded.

"Also can you order all Colonial Fleet assets in system to set Condition Two until Colonial assets are fired upon. Once that happens, Condition One and free engagement are authorised," Tynall added. The order would essentially cause any Colonial Fleet Assets to form a defensive perimeter around Caprica and Tauron orbit installations, ready to mobilise at a moment's notice. Luckily Canceron was currently on the other side of the sun from Caprica and Taruon at the moment, and the Goa'uld ships hadn't made any indication of approaching the planet.

"Yes sir," Reed responded. Tynall turned to leave the office, but paused.

"If it comes down to it, there'll be a Raptor waiting on the roof to transport you to Safe Haven when you're ready. If this gets serious, we'll need people like you to coordinate the Colonial Defence," Tynall stated.

"Thankyou sir. I'll do as much as I can from here before it comes to that. But I'd like to get my family to Safe Haven if possible sir," Reeds responded. Tynall just nodded before leaving the room to issue his next set of orders. The entire floor was still chaos, but Tynall knew that people just needed a direction and something to focus on. That was why these people were on the top floor of Colonial Fleet HQ, they were the best of the best and would be able to meet the challenge issued to them.

"Sir, sir," someone beckoned. Tynall did not recognise the man, he was awfully young to be situated on the top floor, maybe in his late twenties. From the desperation on his face, Tynall could not refuse him. He walked over to the man.

"Yes, what is it," Tynall responded.

"I need to talk to you in private. It regards the explosion at Ulant Atani, and our current situation," the officer responded. Tynall just beckoned for the officer to follow him back into Tynall's office.

"Yes, what is it son?" Tynall asked.

"I have a theory, which is only a theory at this stage, but it fits with recent events too much to be discounted," he said.

"Well, out with it. I don't have all day," Tynall replied, beckoning for the officer to continue. The officer took a few moments to compose himself before he began to speak.

"Could the explosion at Ulant Atani be a pre-emptive strike by the Goa'uld… to decapitate us by removing our leadership before sending in their ships?" he said. It was like a light bulb went off in Tynall's brain. It fit so well – remove the leadership of the Colonies before sending in their ships to conquer the disorganised civilisation – remove the Stargate and any way to smuggle people off-world.

Tynall just stood there for a few moments. Synapses and ideas were connecting at an unprecedented speed in his mind. It all fit so much. The explosion at Ulant Atani could not have been an accident, something they did wrong hooking up the Stargate to the Nuclear-Tylium reactor that powered the entire base, as was the most plausibe theory explaining the explosion at the time. A pre-emptive strike against the Colonies by the Goa'uld was more plausible. But for that to happen, it implied that the Goa'uld knew of the Colonies and had a sufficient time to organise the pre-emptive strike. The probability of that was low, considering that the Colonial forces had only fought two major skirmishes against the Goa'uld – at Cimmera with Earth's forces against the Goa'uld Heru'ur as well as on P7J-989, Alania.

"_Frack, that would be it,"_ Tynall thought. They had not been able to gain a foothold on Alania since an unknown Goa'uld invaded the planet while a significant Colonial contingent was present. Capture and torture of the Colonial prisoners must have revealed the presence of the Twelve Colonies to that particular Goa'uld. Further interrogation of captured Colonial forces must have revealed the location and disposition of Colonial forces within system.

Tynall could not fathom how infiltrators could have made it into the Colonial home system though. Personnel returning through the Stargate at the Earth base were screened for a Goa'uld presence. There would be no way that they could slip through that screening procedure. Regardless, those were questions for another day.

Tynall looked to the man in front of him and could see that he was a Lieutenant.

"Good thinking Lieutenant…" Tynall said, indicating for the officer to supply his name.

"Lieutenant Batiatus, sir," he said after straightening. Batiatus was a familiar name to Tynall, but he could not place where he knew it from.

"Very well. I'd tend to run with this theory until we can get any evidence for or against it. If its correct, it escalates our current situation considerably… dismissed," Tynall responded. Until now Tynall had been running with the theory that the Goa'uld ships had just stumbled onto them and that there had been no coordination of an attack. However the theory presented by Lieutenant Batiatus just fit too well, and Tynall's experience was that if a theory fit an unexplained set of circumstances well, it most probably had an element of truth to it. This theory placed their current predicament into an entirely new ballgame though. Tynall picked up the phone and dialled zero-hash to be placed through to the Colonial Fleet HQ switch board.

"Director Tynall here. I need Director Pendergast of Caprica Defence Forces on a secure line. Authorisation is Bravo, Charlie, Zeta, Zero, Five, Nine, Two, Richter," he said. He waited a few moments as the operator rang the Colonial Defence Forces HQ and placed a call directly to Director Pendergast. While the Colonial Fleet was responsible for space based combat, the Caprica Defence Force was the military arm charged with defence of the planet inside her atmosphere.

"Yes," Tynall heard after a few moments.

"Pendergast. You're aware of the current situation in the outer system?" Tynall asked.

"Of course I am. Everyone is. I'm surprised the newscasters haven't picked up on it yet," he responded.

"Good. No need for sarcasm. I need you to recall all Colonial Reserve forces to active duty and to set Condition Three planet wide," Tynall stated. Pendergast was in charge of all of the within atmosphere forces on Caprica, including Air-force, Navy and Army divisions. Setting Condition Three would result in all available Colonial Forces being alerted and ready for large-scale deployment for combat or humanitarian efforts, but would not result in troops and equipment marching through the streets, yet. There was still no need to cause panic throughout the general populace.

"Is the situation that serious?" Pendergast queried on the other end of the line.

"Yes. We're running on the theory that the Goa'uld were responsible for the explosion at Ulant Atani as a pre-emptive strike," Tynall stated. One small part of his mind warned him against sharing the speculations with outside agencies, but the rest of his mind said 'frack it' – it was better to be over-prepared than under-prepared, especially when facing an unknown such as the Goa'uld. "We're recalling all Fleet Reserve forces to active duty as well," Tynall added.

"Very well. I really hope that we're not needed," Pendergast responded.

"So do I. So do I," Tynall responded before hanging up the phone. He dialled another number and ordered that all Colonial Fleet Reserve Units be activated and to report to their duty stations. Minutes later, people such as Lee "Apollo" Adama would receive messages on their pagers informing them that they'd been recalled to active duty and that they needed to report to their duty stations. Just as Tynall was hanging up the phone, another Ensign entered his office.

"I have Director Selucia of Caprica Station on the line. She's requesting orders, sir," the Ensign said.

"Very well, put her through," Tynall responded. A few moments later after the Ensign returned to his desk, the call came through. Selucia was not happy.

"Director, we have a number of unknown contacts on long-range DRADIS that are not transmitting IFFs. Furthermore Colonial Fleet forces across the station are mobilising. I need to know what is going on and any standing orders," Selucia demanded, cutting straight to the point. Tynall cursed, if the Goa'uld ships were turning up on the long-range sensors of Caprica Station, it wouldn't be long until they started to turn up on purely civilian DRADIS as well.

"Director. There's an information package being prepared now that will be sent to you within fifteen minutes. In the meantime, assume combat readiness and set Condition Two across the station," Tynall responded.

"Condition Two? If you're trying to fracking screw me some more, tell me now and I'll bend over and take it, but don't shut down the station to make me look bad," Selucia responded harshly in Tynall's ear. To say that there was bad blood between them, mostly between Selucia towards Tynall, would have been an understatement. Caprica Station at Condition Two would cause all inbound and outbound traffic to be grounded. All ships at the station would not be allowed to leave, save for military assets. It would also allow Colonial Fleet_ and_ Station personnel to commander civilian and commercial ships docked at the station for strategic purposes. Tynall had not gave the order to set Condition Two lightly, as it would be his head if it was all for nothing.

"Commander James. I do not have time to deal with your attitude. Those ships out there pose a real threat to your station, Caprica, Tauron and all in-system assets. Set Condition Two or I'll find someone who won't question my orders in a potentially live combat environment. Have I made myself clear!" Tynall responded.

"Yes sir. Understood. I'll direct my frustrations onto my staff instead of you sir. James out," Tynall heard as the connection was severed. Despite their differences, Tynall did respect Selucia somewhat.

Tynall just remembered that the President Elect had not been briefed of the situation yet. He was surprised that he hadn't received a phone call from the candidate yet, seeing as Raptors would currently be landing at his position to shuttle him to Safe Haven. Tynall was just about to pick up the phone to dial the Presidential Candidate, as it was something that needed to be done, when he was interrupted by another Ensign.

"Yes, what is it?" Tynall asked.

"Sir. It's not good. Courier Raptors have just returned from Beta and Charlie. There are Goa'uld ships approaching the planets in those systems as well," the Ensign stated.

"_Frack, Frack and more holy motherfracking frack!"_ thought Tynall. He sat there for a few moments, contemplating any moves that could be made. This was a coordinated assault against Colonial defences.

"Send the couriers back. Issue orders for Condition Two to all military assets in each system. As soon as the first shot is fired by the enemy ships, make sure that courier raptors report this to other systems so a coordinated defence can occur. Also make sure Jamal sends the briefing package to assets in Beta and Charlie as well," Tynall responded.

**Viper Squadron Briefing Room 01C5V7 – Caprica Station**

Tension was thick in the air as Lee "Apollo" Adama moved through the hallways of Caprica Station trying to find room 01C5V7, his resentment towards the Fleet at an all time high. Caprica Station was just meant to be a stop over. He had finished a three month deployment on the Battlestar Atlantia and was heading home to continue his law studies. As a member of the Colonial Fleet Reserve, he only had to commit three months per year to active service in order to maintain his skills and capability. During the other eleven months of the year, he was free to do what he wished. At the moment it was studying law part-time through Delphi University.

The message recalling him to service and ordering him to Briefing Room 01C5V7 had come through only ten minutes before he was set to board his transport down the well. He immediately thought that it was a last minute training exercise before he, and all the other Viper Jocks in Reserve Squadron B45, finished their deployment for the year. However as he made his way to the Military arm of Caprica Station he was doubting himself more and more.

"Attention all personnel. This is Station Director Selucia James. Alert Condition Two is now in effect. All civilian and commercial traffic is now grounded. Departure Managers will report to all gates and provide you with further information momentarily. All Station Defence Personnel are to report to duty stations and obtain work assignments immediately. All other Fleet Personnel are to report to your docking hatches or work areas immediately. There is no cause for alarm and this is only a slight delay. Further updates will be provided every half hour," the Stations announcement system blared. This was more serious than Lee had first thought.

Immediately most of the people around Lee began taking amongst one another. However you could easily pick out the military personnel; they were the ones who were moving with purpose throughout the crowd. It was another ten minutes before Lee found the briefing room and snuck his way inside.

"…Station will deploy a heavy array of ECM jamming satellites at ten-thousand clicks. Reserve Squadron B45 and B98 will form a defensive picket around the jamming satellites. Your orders are to protect the satellites from attack by enemy fighter forces," the briefing officer was saying up the front of the room as Lee sat down. If there was any major fleet action, the Reserve Forces would not be put in the thick of the action unless it was absolutely necessary. Lee could see a picture of a standard Colonial ECM Jamming satellite taking up one half of the projector screen. A large pyramid floating in space took up the other half of the screen. "Because of the heavy ECM jamming, your DRADIS and long-range communications will be useless. Raptor Squadron CH12 will outfitted with special equipment that will allow them to see through the jamming field and will relay DRADIS and communications feeds to you via tight-beam links," the briefing officer said. Lee did not like the sound of this – they'd just about be flying blind.

"Is this a Cylon attack?" one of the Viper Pilots asked after the briefing officer paused for a few moments.

"Unknown," the briefing officer replied.

"Are they Colonial?" another person asked.

"Unknown."

"Are they aliens?" yet another pilot asked.

"Unknown," the briefing officer replied again.

"What if they're the Lords of Kobol coming back? Some of our earliest temples were pyramids. There are even references to them in the Scrolls," Lee heard a pilot behind him say to those nearby that would listen.

Lee noticed that the briefing officer had paused for a few moments to read the screen embedded into the lectern. There was obviously a change in orders, or new information was coming through.

"Battlestar Group 46 and Battlestar Group 81 are en-route to intercept the unknown contacts. The Zeus and Galactica are currently plotting an FTL Jump to reinforce both groups," the briefing officer began, pausing for a few moments to look back at the screen, "the Station is beginning to launch the ECM Satellites people! That means that we're up. Everyone to the last place you saw your birds. Form up on Raptor Squadron CH12 who will guide us into the jamming zone… Don't worry people, we should be out of any major action if things get hairy. There's going to be so much jamming put up that the enemy ships will have to eyeball Caprica Station herself to know that she's there, let alone us… Dismissed!"

Immediately chatter broke out in the room as most people started to get out of their seats. A few, like Apollo, hadn't moved and were too shocked to get up yet.

"Did you hear what I heard?" someone near Apollo asked him. He was a Captain, out ranking Apollo.

"I guess so. What did you hear?" Apollo responded after the few seconds it took to realise that he was being asked a question.

"There's some unknown ships out there. They're coming towards us. We don't know what they are or who they belong to. And we're going out to fly blind!" the Captain said to him.

"That's about what I heard," Apollo responded, "best get to it." Apollo got up out of his seat and moved with the rest of the room's remnants towards the exit. He took one last glance at the floating pyramid. Despite the knot that was beginning to form in his stomach, Apollo reminded himself that at any instant now, the Zeus and Galactica would jump much closer to the floating pyramids than Apollo would likely ever get; and that his father was in command of both of those ships.

**Battlestar Zeus – CIC**

Space righted itself once again as the flash of the FTL jump diminished. Immediately Admiral Adama looked up to the DRADIS display to see it flash into life.

"Jump completed. All systems nominal," the navigation officer announced.

"Galactica has reappeared off our port bow," the DRADIS officer announced. "Reading BSG 46 and 81 at fifteen thousand clicks. Goa'uld ships are at extreme local DRADIS range, emerging from the Tealford belt," he said, referring to the asteroid belt that formed a loose ring between the outer gas giant Ragnar, and the inner habitable systems.

"Blue squadron launching," the Communications Officer announced. Adama just nodded in her direction.

"What's happening with the rest of the fleet?" Adama asked Colonel Tigh, his Executive Officer and second in command of the Battlestar Zeus. Tigh looked up to a separate DRADIS display which showed a plot of all assets between the Zeus and Caprica Station's ECM jamming field, millions of kilometres to their rear.

"Local units are forming up into a defensive bracket halfway between us and Caprica. Can't see what's happening in local space around Caprica, which means that Caprica Station's jamming field is in effect and working. I count four Battlestar Groups coming together to form the bracket behind us," Tigh explained, getting all of the information from the long-range DRADIS display.

"Vanderhouse," Adama exclaimed to the navigation officer across the CIC to get his attention, "begin plotting an FTL jump to the defensive line forming up to our rear, just in case we need to get out of here."

"Yes sir."

"The Destroyers from Battlestar Group 81 are reaching the intercept point," Tigh said. Destroyers were small ships with a crew of approximately 200, and did not carry a fighter compliment. Their light weight and three latest generation Tylium-Nuclear power plants gave them high rates of acceleration.

"What are they doing there without their Battlestars?" Adama asked.

"Battlestar Group 81 sent the destroyers ahead to block the Ha'tak's path. The Battlestars and escorts are approximately ten minutes behind. Battlestar Group 46 will reach the interception point two thousand kilometres behind them in six minutes," Tigh replied. Adama could feel the tension in the room escalating. This was starting to get serious.

He had no doubts about his crew. With the Pegasus missing, his crew were the only ones who had actually been to planets with Stargates outside the Cyrannus System. As a result, his crew had the longest time to digest the presence of the Stargates, Earth and the Goa'uld threat in the galaxy. Most other crews didn't know of this, and were only being told now. Additionally they had been the closest military ship to Ulant Atani when it had exploded. Some tight manoeuvring had been required to avoid the fragments of the asteroid as they radiated outwards, powered by the explosion. Of all the crews in the Colonies, Adama's was the one with the most recent experience. He also had the newest, most advanced and most heavily armed Battlestar constructed in all of the Twelve Colonies. They had the best chances of making it through this. It was just everyone else that he was worried about.

"Sir. Destroyer _Dark Star_ is attempting communications with the Goa'uld ship," Vanderhouse, the communications officer called out after a few minutes.

"Put it on the speaker," Adama replied.

"… _k Star _attempting communications with Goo-uled ships. You have entered space under control of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. You are advised to turn back or face hostilities," the voice from the _Dark Star_ said. Silence hung in the CIC, seeming to make the air thicker somehow.

"Vanderhouse. Any response from the Ha'taks?" Adama queried.

"None detected sir," Vanderhouse responded. Silence once again draped itself over everyone in the CIC as they all watched the DRADIS screens or their local terminals.

"Battlestar Group 46 have reached interception point and are forming a blockade. The rest of Group 81 are three minutes away from their interception point," the navigation officer said.

"Now what?" Tigh asked. Adama just glanced at him for a few moments, trying to settle his thoughts and obtain some clarity.

"Vanderhouse, can you patch us into the wireless from Group 81's Vipers or Raptors?" Adama asked. It would give them a better picture of what was happening on the ground, as well as keep everyone focused.

"Patching it through now sir."

"… _by some kind of armour. DRADIS cannot determine the materials of the ship. They're continuing on, ignoring us_," the Viper chatter said. They could see on the DRADIS that there was a squadron of Vipers within visual range of the three Ha'tak ships that were on an intercept course for Caprica.

"The rest of BSG 81 have arrived on station and are forming their own blockade," the navigation officer said.

"_This is the Battlestar Hoplite representing the Colonial Fleet to unknown Pyramid Ships. You are required to alter your course to bearing 035, 243, 153 which will take you out of the Cyrannus A system. Failure to do so will be met with hostile action," _they all heard over the wireless.

"No response from the Goa'uld Ha'taks," Vanderhouse said.

"Distance between Group 81 and Goa'uld ships is now thirty thousand kilometres. Hoplite has fired a broadside across the bow of the approaching ships," the sensors officer called out.

"… _still no response from the approaching ships,"_ they heard from the Vipers of BSG81.

"Time to intercept is 5 minutes on current heading," the sensors officer called out.

"_All fighters, break clear of the space in front of the approaching ships,_" the Battlestar Hoplite transmitted. Adama's eyes were glued to the DRADIS. The approaching Ha'taks were not slowing, and would collide with BSG81 if they kept up their present heading.

"Radiological alarm! The Valkyrie _Federation_ in Group 81 has launched a nuke towards the approaching Ha'taks," the sensors officer announced. The thought, and consequences, had just entered Adama's head when the DRADIS screen was interrupted by static which lasted for less than a second. "Nuclear detonation. Low yield. One thousand kilometres in front of the approaching Ha'taks."

"_No change in the course or bearing of the pyramid ships"_ called a Viper from BSG81.

"_Enemy Ha'tak ship. That was your last warning. Any further encroachment into Colonial Space will result in your destruction" _ Adama heard over the wireless, recognising the voice of the _Hoplite's_ Commander. They all stood in CIC, eyes glued to the DRADIS. A moment passed, and there was no change. Another, and still no change. Adama and everyone else were wishing that they'd see some kind of reaction from the Goa'uld ships. But yet there was nothing. No attempts at communication. No course adjustments. No signals. Nothing.

"Sir, BSG 81 has opened fire on the Ha'tak," the sensors officer said.

"Set Condition One. Bring us and Galactica around on a course to reinforce BSG46," Adama commanded. BSG46 was sitting ten thousand kilometres to the rear of BSG81 who were now engaging the Goa'uld.

"Fire from BSG81 is impacting on an energy field surrounding the ships and appears to have minimal affect, as expected sir," the sensors officer said.

"Centre, right screen," Adama replied. Within moments, view from the _Zeus_' external telescopes was showing on one of the central screens in the CIC. Adama could see the broadside from the three Battlestars of BSG81 impacting on a yellow glowing field surrounding the Ha'taks.

"No change in the course or speed of the Ha'taks. BSG81 are moving out of the interception couse to avoid a direct ramming sir," the DRADIS officer said.

"What's the play here Bill?" Tigh asked, looking at the same DRADIS feed that Adama was.

"Same as it was during the war. Don't die," Adama responded.

"_Frack the Gods!_ _ Enemy ship has opened fire on the_ Dark Star. _Three shots of golden light have hit the Dark Star. She's breaking in half. Secondary explosions occurring along the dorsal…._" They heard over the speakers, the voice of one of BSG81's Vipers in its last moments as it was consumed by the explosion of the Destroyer.

"_Dark Star_ has been destroyed. Enemy fire on the Destroyer _Dominion_… _Dominion destroyed_," the sensors officer called out. The DRADIS screen began beeping, giving notification that the number of contacts within range had changed.

"Frack!" Tigh exclaimed.

"_Hoplite _has been hit by three shots. She's ceased fire, is listing and there are fires evident along her length… fourth shot… secondary explosions along the length of the ship…_ Hoplite_ is… destroyed," the sensors officer said, looking up from his console directly at Adama for the last parts, not even needing the data to tell him that the Mercury Class Battlestar was no more. "All capital ships of BSG81 have been destroyed," he continued weakly. Adama looked at the sensors officer, a young man in his late twenties. He was a few shades paler than he had been not half an hour ago. Adama recognised the look in the young man's eyes, it was one that he was all too familiar with; sheer, absolute and raw terror. The sensors officer turned and released the contents of his stomach on the floor next to him.

As Adama looked at the sensors officer, and then around the room generally, old feelings began to come back to him from the Cylon war. He had forgotten what it was like to feel, and be surrounded by, terror. Over the course of a few moments, Adama's mind chemically reverted back to the state that it had been in during the Cylon War. It gave him clarity and a terrifying focus that he had been trying to find again ever since the war had ended. One part of his mind realised that this was the true difference between a rookie and a seasoned veteran such as Adama; he used it, and thrived on the terror and uncertainty to drive him forward. He took action rather than let his own fear and emotions take the better of him.

He realised that everyone in the CIC was looking to him. He had had his moment, and it was all that he needed before he sprang into action.

"Navigation. Spin up the FTL drives. Update our coordinates to the defensive line between us and Caprica and relay to Galactica," he commanded with absolute authority, taking many in the CIC by surprise with the intensity evident in his demeanour.

"Communication. Order, that's right, Order BSG46 to jump back to the defensive line as well. I don't care if Admiral Reed outranks me, just do it…. Sensors, download _all _the records for active and passive sensors and put it on a Raptor. Get them to jump back to Caprica orbit and transmit to Colonial Fleet HQ immediately. Send the message _'Launch Everything'_ with it," Adama ordered, knowing that no signals would penetrate the Caprica Station ECM field.

"Blue squadron this is Zeus Actual. Return to base. Combat landings are authorised. We jump in…," Tigh started, looking towards the navigation officer who held up three fingers, "… three minutes."

"_Roger that Zeus Actual. Returning to base. We are two minutes out," _they heard over the wireless.

Static filled the speakers almost immediately after Blue Squadron's reply. Adama looked to the communications officer who was frantically working his console.

"It's a blanket transmission from the Goa'uld Ha'taks on all frequencies," the communications officer responded. They all waited for a few more moments until the static diminished and a voice was heard.

"_I am Major Gorick of the Colonial Fleet, serial number 054AHY93. I was one of the lucky few that was rescued from the Battlestar Chryasor. I am on board the approaching Goa'uld Ha'taks. Our God Ba'al speaks to you through me. He demands that we surrender to his will or suffer his wrath. He will wait for thirty minutes for a response. Further attacks or attempts to intimidate him will result in more deaths_," the radio emanated.

"What the frack?" Tigh stated.

"_Chryasor_ is in the same group as _Pegasus_, which still hasn't returned," Adama responded. He watched for a few moments as realisation dawned on Saul Tigh's face.

"Frack!" he exclaimed.

"All birds recovered. Courier Raptor has jumped for Caprica space. FTL drive is spun up. Ready to jump," the navigation officer said. Adama watched as the Ha'tak vessels continued on their current course towards Caprica. There was nothing that they could do here. He had to obey the number one rule of warfare – do not die.

"Very well. Get us out of here. Jump the ship," Adama responded.

**Safe Haven – Caprica**

Tynall and the command staff of the Colonial Fleet were now situated in Safe Haven, a secret location deep underground which could serve as the nexus for command operations during a time of war. Tynall was in the central control room, looking at a wall-sized DRADIS plot of the entire Cyrannus Alpha system. He watched, and heard, as BSG81 was swatted out of the way like flies. He was relieved to see twelve new DRADIS contacts, four of which were Battlestars, appear in orbit around Caprica. They represented a third of the force assigned to protect Canceron which did not have any Goa'uld ships approaching it as of yet. Moments later, another twelve DRADIS contacts appeared in orbit around Tauron, the second third. The rest of the ships remained at Canceron for defensive purposes. He looked up at the clocks in the top right of the screen; twenty minutes until the Goa'uld Ba'al would need an answer; thirty minutes until three Ha'taks would be within engagement range of the Caprica Blockade; thirty five minutes until two Ha'taks would be within engagement range of the Tauron Blockade.

He turned back to the heads of state that were squabbling behind him. The message that Ba'al transmitted had gone out on all frequencies. Everyone with a television or wireless had heard it. Caprica was in a panic. The leaders behind him were debating on whether to surrender.

"… we don't know what surrender means for us. What will he do to us if we do surrender?" the President Elect said.

"We don't fracking surrender! If we didn't surrender during the Cylon war, we won't surrender to this tyrannical maniac with a snake in his head," one of the Colonial Fleet commanders responded.

"It's the military that got us into this in the first place. Obviously if the _Chryasor_ hadn't been out there galavanting around the galaxy, this Ba'al character wouldn't know about us. Its obvious that Major Gorick has been captured, and that the Battlestar Group is the whole reason why Ba'al is even here," the President Elect responded. "Why should we listen to you now?"

"Why didn't Ba'al speak to us directly when he demanded us to surrender?" someone else asked. Tynall knew the answer to that. When he replied, he spoke with authority, causing everyone else to cease their arguments and listen to what he was saying.

"Because he doesn't know the language," Tynall begun. "He can't speak our language and he doesn't have time to learn it… He got a captured Colonial Officer, obviously from the _Chryasor_, and used him to speak to us. Hell, it probably wasn't even Major Gorick speaking to us. I'd put money on it that Gorick's been implanted with a snake, which learned everything he knew in a matter of minutes, and was still mimicking the original host when it spoke."

The room was silent. What Tynall said rang true for many of the people in the room, each figuring that it was the most likely, and most horrible, possibility.

"But all of this doesn't matter. What matters is what we do now… We have a Stargate, and some people on the other side that know a lot more about the Goa'uld than we do, and who have beaten back a Goa'uld invasion force before. I say that we give them a call and ask for some assistance," Tynall said. He didn't even wait for a response from anyone before he moved to the closest table and grabbed the speaker-phone. He dialled a memorised number which connected him straight to the Stargate Facility inside Irradiated Zone 32.

"General Hizemchof," the phone answered. It was the leader of Caprica's Stargate facility, housing the Stargate that was locked and could only dial Earth.

"General. Director Tynall. We need an immediate connection to Earth, and I need to communicate directly with General Hammond of Stargate Command," Tynall responded.

"Very well. Yes sir. If you'll just wait a moment as we dial the gate and route the call," Hizemchof replied. Incredulously hold music came on. In the middle of a crisis, the heads of the Colonial Military were listening to hold music as a wormhole was established between Caprica and Earth, light years away. Tynall knew that at some time he'd need to see the irony in that. Tynall noted that all of the other Heads of State and military commanders were now standing around the table, waiting until the connection was established.

"Can we put this up on the screen and make it a two way video transmission?" Tynall asked one of the nearby technicians.

"Yes Sir," the technician responded. After waiting a few moments, half of the wall sized DRADIS display now showed black static, and the speaker system throughout the underground bunker played the Stargate Facility's hold music.

"Connection established Director Tynall We are now routing you through to General Hammond…. You are on with General Hammond of Earth's Stargate Command," Hizemchof stated. An image of a balding man, advanced in his career, appeared on the wall display.

"General Hammond. I am Director of the Colonial Fleet, Mark Tynall. I have here with me the leaders of the Colonial Military, as well as many heads of State including President Elect Douglas Twain," Tynall began while beckoning to the men behind and beside him as they all stared at the screen. By now the translation software between Earth's 'English' language and Colonial Standard was fast enough to translate on-the-fly and replicate the speakers' voice, tone and pitch almost perfectly. While the Colonial delegation saw Hammond's lips move and form English words, what they heard was Colonial Standard. The same went for the other side as well.

"To what do I owe this honour?" Hammond responded.

"I am sorry that I could not contact you under better circumstances. We are currently in an underground bunker coordinating a defence against a coordinated breach of Colonial airspace by the Goa'uld known as Ba'al," Tynall responded. For a few moments, Hammond did not say anything.

"Did I just hear you correctly? You said that the Goa'uld are invading Colonial space?" Hammond responded.

'Yes, that is correct. There are currently twenty Goa'uld ships spread out over the three Cyrannus systems, approaching our worlds. There have been a few minor skirmishes, but the Goa'uld ships have not yet reached our blockades," Tynall responded.

"I'm sorry to hear that Director. I have SG1 as well as Master Bra'tac, a former soldier of the Goa'uld, in the room right outside. If there's anything that we can do, any assistance that we can provide…" Hammond responded. On the video screen he beckoned off-camera. Tynall could see several people enter the same room as Hammond but remain off camera.

"Well, actually, there is. We have been given a deadline which expires in fifteen minutes. By then we must indicate our intentions to Ba'al on whether we will surrender or not," Tynall responded. "From our early skirmishes, we cannot see a way forward without severe casualties, if not total defeat. Our weapons can not penetrate the Goa'uld's shielding system. We would appreciate some strategic advice from your experts on the best methods to fight the Goa'uld's ships," Tynall responded.

"I believe that Teal'c wishes to say something," Hammond responded, indicating off-camera to Teal'c. A large bald, black man with a golden emblem etched into his forehead stepped into view.

"Director Tynall. I seek permission to come through the Stargate and assist your people to fight the Goa'uld invading your homes. As a former first prime of Aphophis, I have commanded many such invasions and believe that I would be able to determine strategies that would best repel Ba'al," Teal'c said. "I only have one concession… that my son, who is on Tauron studying in one of your military compounds, be evacuated through the Stargate to Earth as soon as possible."

"Very well. It will be done as soon as we're finished here," Tynall responded.

"Mr Teal'c," President Elect Twain queried. Teal'c just nodded in acknowledgement. "Can we not surrender? Surely we can come to some sort of agreement with this Ba'al…" he started, before being cut off by Teal'c.

"Surrender is not an option. The Goa'uld will lure you into surrendering, promising that none of your people will be harmed. But once your military stands down, he will kill everyone who has the ability to resist him. Your ships and your military will be destroyed," Teal'c replied.

"But what if we surrender our hardware? Would he then let us live?" the President Elect responded. Tynall was about to knock the man out – had he not heard a word that Tynall had told him during his briefing.

"Can you ensure that your surrender will be upheld by every single one of your people?" Teal'c retorted. Without waiting for Twain to answer, he continued, "I have been to your worlds and spent time amongst your people. They are warriors. If you surrendered, your people would be placed into slavery. There would be a heavy resistance. Any Goa'uld will retaliate using extreme measures to quell any resistance. Cities would be burned, or destroyed from orbit just to teach your people the cost of resistance. Your population would be decimated. Your people will be stripped of their technology and forced to build parts, harvest grains and mine raw materials for Ba'al's empire. Surrender is not an option," Teal'c countered, his voice and features growing in intensity as he spoke.

Tynall looked to President Elect Twain, and was glad to see that he was taking a few moments to compose himself. Obviously the message had gotten through.

"Thankyou Teal'c. We'll take that under advisement," Twain responded. Tynall looked up at the clock. Ten minutes until the first deadline. Teal'c moved out of the frame to be replaced by General Hammond once again.

"Unfortunately, as you may be aware, we do not have any ships or technology that may be of use. However, as stated before, we do have skilled personnel such as Teal'c who may be able to assist you with your battle strategies," Hammond responded.

"Thankyou General. I would also like to see whether we would be able to start to send some of our best and brightest through the Gate to take refuge on your world, should the worst occur here," Tynall responded. He saw that he got a few looks from the other people in the room when he said that. Tynall knew that they were all still playing catch up.

"Yes, that is fine. We have enough room for them here and at the Beta Site," Hammond responded. "I'm sure that you have a lot of work to do gentlemen, so I won't take up any more of your time. We'll assemble a team to send through within the next half hour," Hammond responded.

"Thankyou General. If we make it through this, we'll be forever in your debt," Tynall responded. "Hopefully we'll see you again. I'll personally make sure that Teal'c's son gets through the gate to you," he continued, cutting off the connection.

Tynall turned to the others in the room after glancing up at the clock one more time. Eight minutes remaining.

"Well, are we all in agreement that surrender is not an option?" Tynall asked. There were nods amongst the assembled men, with no response given by Douglas Twain, the President Elect. "Then that's that. We go to war."

**Ba'al's Ha'tak – Approaching Caprica Blockade**

There were two minutes to go until Ba'al's deadline was met and the Colonials needed to surrender. He knew that they would not, his newest compatriots told him as much. Yet still, he liked to give them a chance. It would be the last decision that their race made on their own; every one afterwards, no matter what course of action they chose, would be made by him from now on.

His answer came early. The Colonial warships began to advance towards his fleet. Ba'al signalled for all of his Ha'tak's to launch their wings of Death Gliders and Alkesh bombers to soften up and intimidate the Colonial's forces. They had arranged an impressive array of ships. If it were not for their inferior technology, Ba'al would not be able to win this fight. There were forty-five warships of varying sizes, some larger than his Ha'taks defending this one planet against his three Ha'taks. His lieutenants advised him that there were over two-hundred warships aligned against his twenty Ha'taks that he had brought to these systems; ten to one odds. Yet he was confident of a favourable outcome with minimal losses. Their ships caved easily to his weapon systems.

His confidence and ego were boosted as the first shells of the Colonial's kinetic weaponry began to detonate harmlessly against his shields. The sheer volume of kinetic weaponry aligned against him was impressive, but still inconsequential.

Ba'al ordered his ships set a course towards the large space station in the orbit of the approaching planet. They would literally fly straight through the Colonial's blockade that they had erected, blasting the warships to pieces as they flew. His lieutenants told him that the Colonials were attempting to block their sensors of the station, but their attempts were wholly ineffective. If the Ha'taks sensors had been woefully primitive, they would have not known that there was a station there. However Ba'al could see it on the sensors as clear as if there was no jamming in the first place.

The viewport automatically darkened as a nearby warship exploded in a ball of fire and debris. It had been swatted out of the sky by the weapons on his own ship. The viewport darkened again as the first nuclear weapon detonated against his shields.

"Jaffa. Kree," he stated to his nearest technician.

"Minimal damage. Shields at 99%. The hull has prevented the radiation from affecting us," the technician responded. Ba'al looked back to the sensors and was surprised that there was a dramatic change.

"Jaffa, explain this," he ordered.

"My Lord. The Colonial ships have a large number of fighter craft aboard. They are formidable. The sheer number are too much for our Death Gliders and Alkesh," the technician responded. Ba'al just pointed to another set of sensor readings which the technician had not seen. Frantically, the technician turned back to his sensors and examined them briefly. "My Lord, there are many fighter craft entering orbit from the surface of the planet," the technician responded.

"How many?" Ba'al asked, just seeing a cloud on his sensors. The technican turned back and fiddled with his sensors a bit more.

"Close to five thousand My Lord," the technician responded.

**Earth – Stargate Command**

It still felt strange to be standing in front of the Stargate as it dialled, geared up for a mission without Carter. Jack O'Neill was starting to think that they'd never get her back from P3J-989, especially now that the Colonies were under attack. Their plans to contact the Battlestar Pegasus and re-route it for a rescue mission had not been successful as the ships had disappeared from the orbit of the desert planet. Still, Jack did not like this mission one bit.

"You know, I still think that you should stay here… it's a lot less, dangerous," Jack said to the blonde in front of him.

"My home is getting invaded by a snake. I'm one of the best pilots around. They need me," the Colonial woman named Kara Thrace responded. She received a cheer from the other Colonial Officers which were going through the gate to the Colonies with SG1, ten citizens of the Twelve Colonies in all.

"Yeah, but I just had to say it. I'd be doing the same thing as you if it were here… Hell, I'm doing the same thing as you and its not even my home," Jack answered.

"Yeah, we get to come home though," Daniel Jackson responded.

"You know how these missions work by now Danny. There'll be something that will stop us from coming back all nice and easy like," Jack responded.

"There had better not be SG1. Your orders are clear. At the first sign of the Goa'uld getting anywhere _near_ the Caprica gate facility, you are to return here and bring as many Colonial personnel with you as possible," Hammond interrupted.

"Yep, we've got it General," Jack said. "I'll just tell the snake heads to let us go through, nice and easy like." Jack could see Hammond just ignore that comment. Jack looked around and could see a look of resolve on Teal'c, Bra'tac and Bra'tac's warriors. Each were going through to advise the Colonials of battle tactics based on knowledge gained first-hand in carrying out similar invasions for Apophis. The fate of thousands of lives would be determined sheerly by the tactics and strategies that they advised the Colonials.

The Stargate activated in front of them all with a large ka-woosh, spilling the unstable energies used to create the vortex out towards them before the process was brought under control. Jack thought that if Carter were here, she could tell him how it worked just _one more time_.

"Okay people. On the alert. Weapons ready. We don't know what we'll be going through to," Jack commanded. In pairs they went forward to the gate, weapons first. Four Colonial marines went first, followed by Starbuck and another pilot, and then Jack and Daniel. Jack stepped forward into the event horizon and let it take him.

Once he emerged to the other side, he immediately heard yelling, and gunshots. In the milliseconds before his sight returned, he wondered what was going on. Then, as he opened his eyes, he was confronted by what he saw enough to make the breath leave his lungs. They were in a golden room with hieroglyphics adorning the walls in vertical patterns. In front of him lay the first two Colonial Marines that had gone through the gate, burn marks on their chest. In front of them lay two Jaffa in full battle armour, riddled with bullet holes. Confusion spread across Jack, until the pieces finally fell into place.

"What the frack O'Neill. This isn't Caprica!" Kara Thrace exclaimed as she penetrated into the room further, weapon raised and pointing around the room. The last of their party had just come through and Jack took a step backwards and placed his arm into the event horizon of the wormhole.

"Jack, what are you doing?" Daniel asked in a concerned voice.

"We're on the ship!" Jack exclaimed in response.

"What? Ooohhhh," Daniel responded, understanding dawning across his face.

With one arm in the event horizon through an outgoing wormhole, which could close at any time and sever his limb, Jack keyed the radio, "Hammond this is O'Neill. We've done it again and gated to a Stargate aboard one of the Goa'uld motherships orbiting Caprica. I need you to keep the wormhole open from your side... Send _everyone_ who can carry a gun… We'll also need a hell of a lot more than 4 sticks of C4 this time… preferably some nukes!" Jack said.

Not even a year beforehand, SG1 and Master Bra'tac had managed to destroy two Goa'uld Ha'tak motherships in Earth's orbit by gating onto the ship when it was near the planet. They had only themselves, four sticks of C4, and a lot of human ingenuity. Jack was going to make sure that this time, they had a lot more than four people and some proper supplies.

"Secure that fracking door and make sure that no one comes through!" Jack exclaimed, pointing with his other hand towards the entrance to the ship's gate room, and borrowing some delightful language from Starbuck.

"_Hammond acknowledges. Rapid response teams will be coming through the gate within three minutes,"_ Jack heard through his radio.

"Bra'tac, Teal'c, on-point. We'll follow your lead," Jack said. Teal'c just nodded while taking up a defensive position with the gate room.

"Yes, we have done this before have we not O'Neill," Bra'tac responded. "I believe it should be, as you would say, a stroll in the park." What they did not know was that it was going to be far from easy, but it was the most successful action that would be undertaken in the entire defensive action against the Goa'uld invasion. The handbook, both Earth's and the Colonials', would describe the actions undertaken by the mixed Earth / Colonial team in the next few hours as standard boarding procedures to overtake a Goa'uld Ha'tak for decades to come.

()()()()()(

**Authors Notes: **as outlined at the top, I wanted an entire chapter devoted to the Cyrannus A system, then another to B, another to C etc. But as you can tell, this update was very big – so Cyrannus A has been broken up into 2 chapters.

If you like anything you have read at all, give me a review.

And before people start wondering how the Colonials were able to dial-out to Earth, but Earth dialled into the Goa'uld ship – it's easy – the Caprica gate is locked. It can only dial earth…. Irrespective if there's another gate around – it will still dial Earth…. The Earth gate is not.. once Earth dialled Caprica, standard gate rules applied and the wormhole opened in the Ha'tak as it overrides the planetary gate (goa'uld modification).


End file.
